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Removal Of Trace Organic Contaminants By Enzymatic Membrane Bioreactors: Role Of Membrane Retention And Biodegradation, Muhammad Bilal Asif, Jingwei Hou, William E. Price, Vicki Chen, Faisal I. Hai

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Performance of an enzymatic membrane bioreactor (EMBR) equipped with either an ultrafiltration (UF) or a nanofiltration (NF) membrane was explored for the degradation of a set of 29 chemically diverse trace organic contaminants (TrOCs). The NF membrane provided effective retention (90-99%) of TrOCs within the NF-EMBR. On the other hand, partial retention of charged and significantly hydrophobic (log >3) TrOCs was achieved by the UF membrane via charge repulsion and adsorption on the enzyme gel-layer formed on the membrane surface during UF-EMBR operation. Laccase achieved TrOC-specific degradation in both EMBRs. The extent of TrOC degradation was significantly (5 to 65%) …