Enhanced removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care products from real municipal wastewater using an electrochemical membrane bioreactor

[Display omitted] •A novel EMBR with built-in electrodes was developed for enhanced removal of PPCPs.•The EMBR showed higher removal efficiencies for 14 PPCPs compared to the control.•The EMBR had lower membrane fouling rate compared to the control.•No noticeable adverse impact on microbial viabilities and communities was observed.•Direct oxidation and ROS-mediated indirect oxidation contributed to PPCP removal. A novel electrochemical membrane bioreactor (EMBR) was developed for enhancing PPCPs removal from real municipal wastewater. Compared to the control MBR (CMBR) without applying electric field, EMBR exhibited higher removal efficiencies for 14 PPCPs among all investigated PPCPs, including 3 fluoroquinolones, 2 macrolides, 6 sulfonamides and 3 anti-inflammatory drugs, while no significant difference was observed for the rest 8 PPCPs. The enhanced removal of 14 PPCPs was mainly attributed to electrooxidation by the direct anodic oxidation and reactive oxygen species-mediated indirect oxidation. Moreover, membrane fouling rates of EMBR (0.55 ± 0.10 kPa/d) were significantly reduced compared with CMBR (0.99 ± 0.09 kPa/d). Microbial activities and community analyses demonstrated that the applied electric field had no noticeable adverse impact on microbial viabilities, richness and diversity. These findings demonstrated that this EMBR enhanced pollutant removal and mitigated membrane fouling simultaneously, highlighting the potential of the novel technology to be used for removing PPCPs from wastewater.