OxyMem is a technology for aerobic biological treatment based on membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABR). The breakthrough of this technology is that oxygen permeates through the membranes to the biofilm without the need of forced aeration or bubbles which leads to a remarkable reduced energy consumption. This study aims to evaluate this technology for urban waste water treatment. Pilot plant experimentation was being conducted in order to analyse its behaviour and removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand and nitrogen among other parameters. The objective is also to do an economic appraisal of the feasibility of this technology’s future implementation on urban waste water treatment plants. Data acquisition was carried out during the 18 weeks of operation in order to follow up the performance under different conditions following the initial project planning. Water samples were taken and analysed with chemical oxygen demand and ammonium test kits and also were sent to an external laboratory for further parameters analyse. The objective of this monitoring was to provide information about the behaviour of the pilot plant under two different organic loading rate stages and monitoring especially the organic matter degradation efficiency, accounted as chemical oxygen demand and the nitrification and denitrification processes efficiency among other key performance indicators. The initial project planning could not be followed as expected and this project also aims to explain the different issues that were faced during the operation and the implemented changes for solving them. The study concludes that, although OxyMem technology incorporates a really innovative and advanced idea and is able to treat really demanding urban effluents, still needs to be improved in order not only to be competitive compared to other existing technologies but also to be a further reliable and stable option and also to have a higher capacity treatment for broadening its applicability on the urban waste water market
