Comparison of removal of pharmaceuticals in MBR and activated sludge systems

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) nowadays attract serious attention for the treatment of municipal wastewater, due to recent technical innovations and drastic cost reductions of the employed membranes. Especially the high biomass concentrations and long sludge retention times are favorable for the biodegradation of organic pollutants, resulting in high rate treatment systems. These characteristic features of MBR technology are not merely advantageous for organic matter removal, but also likely promote a higher biodegradation efficiency of refractory organic pollutants. The increasing concern about the potential accumulation of micro-pollutants such as pesticides, pharmaceuticals and personal care products, in the aquatic environment triggered many investigations into their biological degradation or fate in wastewater treatment systems. In this work a short overview is presented on the current knowledge of removal of pharmaceuticals in MBRs compared to their removal in conventional activated sludge treatment system. In general, for slowly degradable pharmaceuticals the removal in MBRs is better due to the relatively long sludge ages, which leads to the development of distinct microbial communities in MBRs compared to activated sludge plants. Nevertheless, from the literature results it could not be concluded that pharmaceutical removal in MBR reactors is better as many other factors have been indicated that may affect biodegradation rates, which are not directly related to the reactor configuration.