Chapter 18 - Recent development in membrane biofilm reactor (MBf R): A critical review

Abstract

The soul of membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) technology is to supply nutrients/gaseous substrate to microorganisms, therefore improving the efficiency of the wastewater treatment precisely. This is an emerging technology for wastewater treatment. Microbial biofilms are formed on the surface of the membrane, which behaves differently from a conventional biofilm. MBfRs are used for various wastewater treatment applications, including the removal of carbon, nitrogen, organic, and inorganic compounds. The advantage of MBfR is high gas utilization rate, low energy consumption, and small reactor footprints. There are plenty of lab-scale and pilot studies in both types of reactors; oxygen and hydrogen-based MBfRs, however, there is a lack of plant scale studies. There are bottlenecks in MBfR technology like; biofilm management, reactor configuration, and development of cost-effective membranes. This chapter critically analyses the recent technological advancement in MBfR and evaluates the challenges faced by the technology at present. In the end, this chapter also summarizes the future direction of research to make this technology one of the prime techniques used for wastewater treatment.