Removals of Organic Micropollutants in Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactor in Wastewater Treatment: Critical Review

Anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) is a promising technology for achieving an energy-saving or even energy-positive wastewater treatment process as it produces high effluent quality and renewable energy in the form of methane. Nevertheless, concerns on inflowing organic micropollutants (OMPs) caused by various human and industrial activities into AnMBR system are proliferating. The extent to which the removal of OMP in the AnMBR is understood should vary greatly depending upon the removal pathways mainly involved such as sorption into biomass, transformation, or membrane filtration. This review paper describes the fate and removal mechanisms of OMPs in AnMBR system. Although the overall performance of AnMBR treating various wastewaters has been observed under such reduced conditions, understanding and modeling the removal mechanisms of OMPs in this type of reactor still requires many works. Elucidating the removal mechanisms of OMPs will lead to the improvements in designs and operations of AnMBR system while optimizing performances and saving energy.