Membrane bioreactors

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) combine a membrane system with a biological reaction offering a unique opportunity to restrict the physical space of a biocatalyst, which can be an enzyme, a microorganism or a plant/animal cell. Due to this broad range of biological reactions, the modeling of such MBR systems can be rather different, depending on the biological process taking place. Therefore, this chapter discusses how the different characteristics and complexities of internal MBR processes affect the choice between mechanistic and multivariate statistical models. In many situations, relatively simple mechanistic models can be used, such as in enzymatic bioreactors. However, in complex systems, such as in MBRs for wastewater treatment, particularly when process monitoring and control is envisage, the multivariate statistical modeling approach may become more useful. Considering the bright future of MBRs, modeling requirements will be challenging and will require open-minded approaches.