Investigation on SMP and EPS in membrane bioreactor combined with microbial fuel cells.

This study reported a novel strategy of integrating MFCs with a membrane bioreactor(MBR) for membrane fouling mitigation.The soluble microbial products(SMP) and extracellular polymeric substances(EPS) from the suspended sludge of MFC-MBR combined system and conventional MBR were analysed.Compared to the conventional MBR,the SMP and TB-EPS concentrations in the MFC-MBR combined system increased by 8.5% and 9.2% respectively.Conversely,the LB-EPS concentration decreased by 47.5%.In addition,the aromatic protein and humic acid in LB-EPS also decreased significantly.The membrane fouling was also investigated in the conventional MBR and MFC-MBR combined system.The time required to reach a TMP of 30 kPa was 38 days in the conventional MBR and 55 days in the MFC-MBR combined system,which indicated that the recycling of the sludge treated by MFC was able to alleviate membrane fouling.