Removal of endocrine disrupting chemicals and microbial indicators by a decentralised membrane bioreactor for water reuse

Submerged membrane bioreactors (MBRs) have attracted a significant amount of interest for decentralised treatment systems due to their small footprint and ability to produce high quality effluent, which is favourable for water reuse applications. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the capacity of a full-scale decentralised MBR to eliminate 17 endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) and five indigenous microbial indicators. The results show that the MBR consistently achieved high removal of EDCs (>86.5%). Only 2 of the 17 EDCs were detected in the MBR permeate, namely two-phenylphenol and 4-tert-octylphenol. Measured log₁₀ reduction values of vegetative bacterial indicators were in the range of 5–5.3 log₁₀ units, and for clostridia, they were marginally lower at 4.6 log₁₀ units. Removal of bacteriophage was in excess of 4.9 log₁₀ units. This research shows that MBRs are a promising technology for decentralised water reuse applications.