Insights from Three Years of the Full-Scale Side-by-Side MABR Demonstration at the Ejby Mølle WRRF

The past decade of the wastewater industry has seen numerous innovations, many of which center around improvements in energy efficiency and process intensification for nutrient removal. The Membrane Aerated Biofilm Reactor (MABR) has emerged as a technology that satisfies both of these goals and is growing rapidly in the number of installations(Lu et al., 2020); however, there remains a lack of detailed operational data to better understand the dynamics of the system and how different variables can affect performance(Martin & Nerenberg, 2012). VandCenter Syd (VCS) initiated a demonstration study of MABR technology at its 410,000 population equivalent facility Ejby Mølle WRRF (Odense, Denmark) in 2018. Two full-scale units from vendors OxyMem and SUEZ were installed and operated for over two years. This paper will provide a broad overview of this program, discussing the initial challenges related to operating under deeply anaerobic conditions, as well as the more recent positive testing results having solved this issue.