Membrane Bioreactors in the Treatment of Wastewater Generated from Agricultural Industries and Activities

Membrane Bioreactors (MBRs) can be broadly defined as systems integrating biological degradation of waste products with membrane filtration. They have proven quite effective in removing organic and inorganic contaminants as well as biological entities from wastewater. Advantages of the MBR include good control of biological activity, high quality effluent free of bacteria and pathogens, smaller plant size, and higher organic loading rates. There have been numerous successful pilot-scale studies with some full-scale models in operation in France, the United States, and Japan. Current applications include water recycling in buildings, wastewater treatment for small communities, industrial wastewater treatment, and landfill leachate treatment. This paper summarizes the potential applications of the MBR technology for the treatment of wastewater from agricultural sources. Anaerobic digestion coupled with an aerobic/anoxic membrane bioreactor could be utilized for treating manure and wastewater from livestock operations to levels suitable for direct reuse or safe discharge to surface water bodies. Wastewater generated from industries such as slaughterhouses, meat, dairy, egg, and potato processing, and liquor production can be treated with MBRs resulting in compact systems producing high quality reusable water. Also effective removal of nitrate, herbicides, pesticides, and endocrine disrupting compounds can be achieved by MBRs.