Integrated and hybrid anaerobic treatment technology

Hybrid anaerobic osmotic membrane bioreactors (AnOsMBRs) have been considered a new direction of research in municipal wastewater treatment with excellent merits such as high pollutant removal, low membrane fouling, high potential in nutrient recovery and biogas production. This is the first breakthrough technology/novel multibarrier system to reach two purposes: treating municipal wastewater to produce high-quality effluent for reuse and recovering wastes in wastewater (consideration wastes as a resource). Although the combination of processes in the AnOsMBR presents unique opportunities, challenges must be addressed to achieve successful commercialization. High pollutant rejection from the AnOsMBR system causes a salt accumulation in a bioreactor, which is one of the biggest challenges as it reduces the driving force across the membrane, subsequently declined water flux. The built-up salt also inhibits the microorganism activity in bioreactor leading to reduced nutrient removal and membrane fouling. Moreover, finding the ideal draw solute in the AnOsMBR system is still the big obstacle to achieve simultaneously high water flux, low reverse salt flux, and effective/easy recovery. In this chapter, we focus on major challenges of AnOsMBR, such as membrane fouling, maintained water flux, salinity buildup, and draw solution. In this article, results from past and most recent hybrid AnOsMBR system studies are systematically summarized and elucidated for evaluating the merits and obstacles of AnOsMBR application. The future research directions for the hybrid AnOsMBR system for municipal wastewater treatment and water reuse are also highlighted.