title: Fouling in membrane bioreactors: An updated review.
abstract: The goal of the current article is to update new findings in membrane fouling and emerging fouling mitigation strategies reported in recent years (post 2010) as a follow-up to our previous review published in Water Research (2009). According to a systematic review of the literature, membrane bioreactors (MBRs) are still actively investigated in the field of wastewater treatment. Notably, membrane fouling remains the most challenging issue in MBR operation and attracts considerable attention in MBR studies. In this review, we summarized the updated information on foulants composition and characteristics in MBRs, which greatly improves our understanding of fouling mechanisms. Furthermore, the emerging fouling control strategies (e.g., mechanically assisted aeration scouring, in-situ chemical cleaning, enzymatic and bacterial degradation of foulants, electrically assisted fouling mitigation, and nanomaterial-based membranes) are comprehensively reviewed. As a result, it is found that the fundamental understanding of dynamic changes in membrane foulants during a long-term operation is essential for the development and implementation of fouling control methods. Recently developed strategies for membrane fouling control denoted that the improvement of membrane performance is not our ultimate and only goal, less energy consumption and more green/sustainable fouling control ways are more promising to be developed and thus applied in the future. Overall, such a literature review not only demonstrates current challenges and research needs for scientists working in the area of MBR technologies, but also can provide more useful recommendations for industrial communities based on the related application cases.
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China. Electronic address: mengfg@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Fangang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China.
authors.forename: Shaoqing
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, South Korea.
authors.forename: Yoontaek
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.affiliation: School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China. Electronic address: zhouzhongbo-1986@163.com.
authors.forename: Zhongbo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 305-701, South Korea.
authors.forename: Hang-Sik
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical, Chemical, and Environmental Engineering, 701 Engineering Research Center, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, United States.
authors.forename: So-Ryong
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Chae
mesh_terms: D019149:Bioreactors / Q000382:microbiology; D004560:Electricity; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D062065:Wastewater / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Extracellular polymeric substances (EPS); In-situ fouling control; Membrane bioreactor (MBR); Membrane fouling; Wastewater treatment