Performance and model of a novel membrane bioreactor to treat the low-strengthen complex wastewater

► The low-strength complex wastewater comes from a real pharmacy company. ► We investigate the performances under four different HRTs. ► MLMBR performance better than IMBR on pollutants removing. ► MLMBR can alleviate the membrane fouling. ► We model the inner relationship between HRTs and performances of MLMBR.