Abstract
Water scarcity and declining water quality demand more efficient wastewater reuse technologies. Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) produce high-quality effluent but are limited by membrane fouling, largely driven by extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). While EPS concentration is often linked to fouling, increasing evidence shows that the EPS fingerprint, its compositional profile rather than total quantity, governs filtration performance. However, a mechanistic framework connecting influent composition, operational conditions, microbial community structure, EPS fingerprint, and fouling behavior is lacking. This project aims to establish this missing link. Long-term bench-scale reactors will be operated under systematically varied wastewater compositions and redox regimes to enrich distinct microbial communities in conventional activated sludge, aerobic granular sludge, and MBR systems. Both simulated and real industrial wastewaters will be investigated. Reactor performance, microbial community dynamics, sludge properties, and membrane filtration behavior will be integrated with EPS extraction and in-depth compositional analysis. By moving toward a composition-driven understanding of EPS, the project will identify operational strategies to steer microbial communities toward less fouling-prone EPS profiles. The results will enable predictive fouling control and support sludge valorization, strengthening sustainable industrial water reuse within a circular economy.
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