Enhanced treatment performance of coking wastewater and reduced membrane fouling using a novel EMBR

•A novel EMBR was built to treat coking wastewater and reduce the membrane fouling.•EMBR showed high degradation rates for COD, phenol, pyridine and quinoline.•Bacterial community was richer and more diverse in EMBR.•The membrane fouling in EMBR was reduced.

A novel EMBR (electric field applied in MBR) by placing stainless steel mesh cathode inside a flat membrane module and stainless steel mesh anode outside the module was built and operated to enhance the treatment performance of coking wastewater containing phenol, pyridine and quinoline and reduce the membrane fouling. The degradation rates of COD, phenol, pyridine and quinoline in EMBR with electric field (reactor A) were significantly higher than the sum of EMBR without electric field (reactor B) and only electro-catalytic degradation during the long-term treatment, confirming that a coupling effect was existed between biodegradation and electro-catalytic degradation process. Illumina sequencing data revealed that bacterial community was richer and more diverse in reactor A. Comamonas strain JB as the inoculums was the most dominant genus in each reactor and electric field applied in reactor A further improved the abundance of strain JB. The membrane fouling in reactor A was reduced.