Membrane bioreactor experiences with

Lab-scale bioreactor integrated with active membrane system for hydrogen production experience and prospects. Ini../. Hydr. Energy., 27 1149-1155... 

Figure 7.17 Experiments showing the rate of fouling of 0.22-p.m microfiltration membranes used to treat dilute biomass solutions. The membranes were operated at the fluxes shown, by increasing transmembrane pressure over time to maintain this flux as the membranes fouled [12]. Reprinted from J. Membr. Sci. 209, B.D. Cho and A.G. Fane, Fouling Transients in Nominally Sub-critical Flux Operation of a Membrane Bioreactor, p. 391, Copyright 2002, with permission from Elsevier...

The effect of detoxification of the medium by removal of toxic compounds with UF membranes was demonstrated by Boyaval et al. [36] in the fermentation of propionic acid. UF runs led to an eightfold increase in volumetric productivity relative to fed batch experiments. The effectiveness of membrane bioreactors in the lowering of toxicity of the compounds involved in the bioconversion system was demonstrated by Edwards and co-workers [159]. An eightfold increase in the removal of phenoHc compounds from effluents was observed when polyphenoloxidase was immobilized in a capillary poly(ether)sulfone membrane as compared to the use of the free enzyme. Butanol recovery from the fermentation medium with organic solvent extraction or membrane solvent extraction led to similar results, both processes leading to decreased product inhibition. Due to the low toxicity of the extractive solvent used (isopropyl myristate) on Clostridium beyerinckii cells, no protective effect of the membrane was observed. However, precipitates observed in two-Hquid phase extraction were not observed... 

Fatone, F, Battistoni, P, Bolzonella, D. Cecchi, F. (2008a) Long-term experience with an automatic process control for nitrogen removal in membrane bioreactors. Desalination, 227, 72-84. 

A few years ago, Vincent Noireaux (now at the University of Minnesota) and Albert Libchaber (of Rockefeller University in New York) published an article with a telling title A vesicle bioreactor as a step toward an artificial cell assembly they reported data of a series of experiments in which they used a vesicle like the one in Figure 5.1 / and tried to equip it with at least the elements of bare necessity for a simplest biological cell. They succeeded in implanting some of the proteins into the artificial membrane, placing some DNA inside the cell, and making a few more steps towards artificial cell. 

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