Over the past decade, membrane bioreactors have been increasingly implemented to purify municipal wastewater. However, even with submerged membranes, which offer the lowest costs, the MBR technology remains in most cases more expensive than conventional processes. In addition, the European municipal MBR market is to date a duopoly of two non-European producers, despite many initiatives to develop local MBR filtration systems. The proposed AMEDEUS research project aims at tackling both issues, accelerating the development of competitive European MBR filtration technologies, as well as increasing acceptance of the MBR process through decreased capital and operation costs. The project will target the two markets for MBR technology in Europe: the construction of small plants (semi-central, 50 to 2,000pe, standardized and autonomous), and the medium-size plants (central, up to 100.000pe) for plant upgrade. Technological development of new MBR systems will be fostered by a consortium composed of 12 partners, of which five SMEs proposing novel concepts of low-cost and high-performance filtration systems. Two end-users, three non-profit institutions and two universities, all of them well versed in R&D in the MBR field, will investigate solutions to reduce operation costs such as fouling control, membrane cleaning optimisation, aeration decrease, or optimise capital costs through improved implementation of membrane bioreactor process. Furthermore, an analysis of the potential for standardisation will be performed, and a technology transfer towards Southern and Eastern Europe will be organised in order to facilitate the penetration of these new markets. AMEDEUS will achieve concrete and realistic technological breakthroughs for the MBR technology, and improve the current process engineering and operation practices. It will improve the competitiveness of the MBR European market and render common this high-tech process for municipal wastewater treatment.
Source: European Commission
