Removal of antibiotics in sponge membrane bioreactors treating hospital wastewater: Comparison between hollow fiber and flat sheet membrane systems

- Total nitrogen removal rate achieved 0.011-0.020 mg TN mg VSS−1 d−1 for both MBRs.
- A higher removal of antibiotics was found in FS than in HF.
- Remarkable removal of antibiotics (CIP, NOR, OFL, TET, TRI, ERY) were achieved.
- Sulfamethoxazole was not significantly removed in Sponge MBRs.
- A significant reduction of membrane fouling was performed in HF-Sponge MBR.

Hollow fiber (HF) and flat sheet (FS) Sponge MBRs were operated at 10-20 LMH flux treating hospital wastewater. Simultaneous nitrification denitrification (SND) occurred considerably with TN removal rate of 0.011-0.020 mg TN mg VSS−1 d−1. Furthermore, there was a remarkable removal of antibiotics in both Sponge MBRs, namely Norfloxacin (93-99% (FS); 62-86% (HF)), Ofloxacin (73-93% (FS); 68-93% (HF)), Ciprofloxacin (76-93% (FS); 54-70% (HF)), Tetracycline (approximately 100% for both FS and HF) and Trimethoprim (60-97% (FS); 47-93% (HF). Whereas there was a quite high removal efficiency of Erythromycin in Sponge MBRs, with 67-78% (FS) and 22-48% (HF). Moreover, a slightly higher removal of antibiotics in FS than in HF achieved, with the removal rate being of 0.67-32.40 and 0.44-30.42 µg mg VSS−1 d−1, respectively. In addition, a significant reduction of membrane fouling of 2-50 times was achieved in HF-Sponge MBR for the flux range.