Non-woven fabric filter and poly-tetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composite membrane were investigated to determine their applicability to treat low strength wastewater in an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AMBR). Sludge cake resistance of the membrane was quantified using pure water flux of anaerobic sludge cake accumulated on the glass fiber filter of similar pore size. It is hypothesized that the formation of thin cake layer on the porous medium, e.g. non-woven and PTFE acts as a dynamic membrane. Thus, the capture of thin sludge cake inside the non-woven fabric matrix and accumulation on the PTFE membrane surface forms a membrane system equivalent to a commercial membrane system. The permeate quality was found to improve as the cake became more dense with filtration time. The PTFE composite membrane coated with thin PTFE film on the non-woven fabric filter enhanced the filtration performance by improving flux and minimizing the propensity of bio-fouling. The membrane flux was restored by back-flushing with permeate. The AMBR coupled with PTFE laminated membrane was operated continuously during the experiment at a cross flow velocity (CFV) of 0.1–0.2 m/sec and a transmembrane pressure (TMP) of 0.5–3 psi. Although about a month of acclimation was required to reach steady state, the effluent chemical oxygen demand (COD), volatile fatty acids (VFAs) as acetic acid, and suspended solids (SS) concentrations were below 30, 20 and 10 mg/L, respectively, during 90 days of operation with intermittent back washing. The lower operation TMP and CFV were subjected to less shear stress on the microbial community during continuous AMBR operation. In addition, thin sludge film accumulated on the membrane surface also acted as a biofilm bioreactor to remove additional COD in this study
