Evaluation of nutrient removal performance and resource recovery potential of anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic membrane bioreactor with limited aeration

[Display omitted] •A limited-aeration AAO-MBR were built for efficient nutrient removal and recovery.•The MBR removed nitrogen and phosphorus removal by 81.5% and 96.7 %•Limited-aeration AAO-MBR alleviated membrane fouling by enlarging sludge flocs.•The MBR enhanced metabolic activity and enriched bacteria for nutrient removal.•Sludge from limited-aeration AAO-MBR showed higher resource recovery potential. This study proposes a novel strategy to obtain high-efficiency synchronous removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater by the limited-aeration anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic membrane bioreactor (AAO-MBR) and evaluates its resource recovery potential. Effects of membrane flux on pollutants removal and membrane fouling were investigated, and the optimal flux of 30 L/(m2·h) was obtained with efficient nitrogen and phosphorus removal of 81.5 ± 6.1% and 96.7 ± 2.1%. Compared with traditional and chemical-aided AAO-MBRs, limited-aeration AAO-MBR also alleviated membrane fouling by enlarging sludge flocs, improved sludge activities, and enriched the functional bacteria and genes. The sludge denitrification activity and phosphorus uptake activity of the limited-aeration AAO-MBR were 1.7 and 4.2 times as those of the traditional AAO-MBR. Low-temperature sludge pyrolysis results showed that sludge from limited-aeration AAO-MBR had higher nutrient storage and release capacity. This study proved the efficient nutrient removal capacity and high resource recovery potential of the limited-aeration AAO-MBR process.