Removal of Pharmaceuticals by Membrane Bioreactor (MBR) Technology

Abstract Due to its many advantages, the use of filtration membranes for wastewater applications, the so-called membrane bioreactor (MBR), is gaining increased attention, and during the last years, researchers have been studying the feasibility of this technology for pharmaceuticals removal from wastewater. This chapter has been conceived as a review of the literature available on this topic combined with experimental data from the authors. Different aspects concerning the use of MBRs for pharmaceuticals removal are explained in different sections with the aim of identifying knowledge gaps and further research needs: (i) Analysis of the evolution of the research focused on the elimination of pharmaceutically active compounds using MBRs, with an emphasis on current and prospective trends (ii) Critical review of the available information on the elimination of a specific set of pharmaceuticals using MBRs (iii) Description of a case study based on the simultaneous operation of a conventional bioreactor and an MBR under similar conditions