Microbiology of membrane bioreactors for wastewater treatment: a molecular approach

Dissertation presented to obtain the Ph.D degree in Engineering and Technology Sciences, Biotechnology.

Water is a natural resource essential for life maintenance of the human kind and the ecosystems found in Nature. Currently the natural resources of water are increasingly exhausted with the constant water demand. Biological wastewater treatment processes are green, economic and efficient ways to remove pollutants from wastewater and recycle the water back into the environment. Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) in the last two decades have gained special attention due to the small footprint and the high quality of the treated effluent, helping meeting the requirements of increasingly stricter legislations. MBRs combine the activated sludge process with membrane filtration and have specific features that likely affect the microbial structure and ecophysiology.(...)