Commercial Membrane Bioreactors Review

Membrane bioreactors combine the activated sludge process with membrane separation. The two main MBR configurations involve either submerged or side stream membrane bioreactors. Four commercial MBR systems have been explained in this paper that three of them are submerged MBRs and one of them is side stream MBR. Flat plate membranes are used in one of the submerged systems, two other submerged systems employ hollow fiber membranes and tubular membranes are used In side stream MBR. Although the performance of four different types of commercial MBRs are very comparable, but there are some differences in type and pore size of membranes, energy usage and method and interval of membrane cleaning, between these systems.