Membrane Biological Reactors

Membrane biological reactors combine the use of biological processes and membrane technology to treat wastewater. The use of biological treatment can be traced back to the late nineteenth century. It became a standard method of wastewater treatment by the 1930s (Rittmann, 1987). Both aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment methods have been extensively used to treat domestic and industrial wastewater (Visvanathan et al., 2000). After removal of the soluble biodegradable matter in the biological process, any biomass formed needs to be separated from the liquid stream to produce the required effluent quality. In the conventional process, a secondary settling tank is used for such solid/liquid separation and this clarification is often the limiting factor in effluent quality (Benefield and Randall, 1980).