Scope of aerobic and anaerobic membrane bioreactor in industrial wastewater treatment

Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST), Shibpur,
Howrah-711 103, West Bengal, India
E-mail: bhaduri.soumyadeep@gmail.com
Manuscript received online 07 December 2020, accepted 27 December 2020

The objective of this paper is to present the current status of membrane bioreactor in industrial wastewater treatment. Membrane
bioreactor has been used in treating various type of industrial wastewater due to its advantages over conventional biological
treatments. Membrane bioreactors are used in industries like textile, tannery, petrochemical, food processing, pharmaceutical,
etc. Membrane bioreactor is used in either in external module or in submerged module. In external module a separate
unit after the aeration tank is introduced for solid liquid separation whereas in submerged module the membrane is put
inside the aeration tank. The COD removal efficiency of a membrane bioreactor is very high. Moreover, the nitrogen removal
is more as sludge can be retained for more time which increases the amount of nitrogen removing organisms. The membrane
bioreactor is still not widely adopted because of membrane fouling and high energy demand. Modification of the process can
mitigate these problems.