are increasingly applied for industrial wastewater treatment as
the implementation of membrane ultra-filtration for solids
retention into biological treatment system leads to several
substantial improvements compared to conventional biological
processes: The combination of activated sludge units and
membrane filtration for biomass retention generally results in
high effluent qualities and compact plant configurations.
Complete solids removal, a significant disinfection capability,
high rate and high efficiency organic removal and small
footprint are common characteristics with every wastewater
type to be treated. An important feature of MBRs is the
possibility to employ high sludge ages facilitating the growth of
specialised microorganisms and in such a way promoting
improved degradation of refractory organics [6]. This makes
MBR technology a highly promising technique for industrial
wastewater purification. Therefore MBR effluents can be of a
quality suitable for direct recycling or after further purification
by additional post-treatment steps [7,8].