Research and applications of membrane bioreactors in China: Progress and prospect

In the past 15 years, remarkable progress has been achieved on the research and commercial applications of membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology in China. The objective of this paper is then to critically review the research achievements and to specifically present commercial applications of MBR in China. A total of 722 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals (600 Chinese papers and 122 English papers) written by Chinese authors from 1991 to 2006 and 254 full-scale MBR plants constructed in China were used as the analysis database. The number of articles published in journals together with organizations involved in MBR research saw a significant increase from 2001 to 2006, and much research progress was made during this period. From geographic distribution of these studies, it was found that the majority of the studies were carried out in North China, East China and North-East China. The research mainly focused on biomass separation MBR (BSMBR) with limited studies on extractive MBR (EMBR) and membrane aeration bioreactor (MABR), etc., and research contents included MBR configuration and type, membrane material and module, membrane fouling and control, characteristics of various wastewater treatment and other aspects like gas removal and microbial fermentation, etc. For commercial applications in China, a total of 254 MBR plants for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment were constructed by a lot of home-grown companies such as Tianjin Motimo Membrane Technology Co., Ltd. and Beijing Origin Water Technology Co., Ltd. and overseas-funded companies like Toray (Japan), Zenon (Canada), Mitsubishi-Rayon (Japan), etc. MBR plants with large treatment capacity will be built in future especially in North China due to the great need of water reclamation and reuse. Potential areas of MBR application include surface/drinking water treatment, gas diffusion and removal, membrane assisted fermentation for biological substance transformation and production, etc.