The presence of antibiotics in wastewater has been widely confirmed. Membrane bioreactor (MBR), as an efficient wastewater treatment technology, has attracted increasing interest in its ability to remove antibiotics in recent years. However, its long-term operation stability and the underlying mechanisms for antibiotics removal are still poorly understood. In this study, a hollow fiber MBR was used to treat low concentration sulfamethazine (SMZ) contained wastewater. The long-term effects of various SMZ concentrations on nutrients removal, SMZ degradation, and sludge characteristics were investigated. During the 244 days operation, the overall SMZ removal efficiency could reach 95.4 ± 4.5% under various SMZ concentrations and hydraulic retention times. The reactor exhibited high chemical oxygen demand and NH₄⁺-N removal efficiencies, which reached 93.0% and 96.2%, respectively. A sludge concentration of 4.1 ± 0.3 g/L was maintained in the system without excess sludge discharge. The dosage of SMZ had obvious effect on sludge characteristics. The contents of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) in MBR decreased after a long-term operation of the reactor under SMZ pressure. The low sludge concentration and the reduced EPS content were also beneficial for mitigating membrane fouling. Thus, this study provides a low-cost, efficient and simple approach to treat SMZ-contained wastewater.

废水中抗生素的存在已得到广泛证实。膜生物反应器（MBR）作为一种有效的废水处理技术，近年来对其去除抗生素的能力引起了越来越多的兴趣。然而，其长期的操作稳定性和去除抗生素的潜在机制仍知之甚少。在这项研究中，中空纤维MBR被用于处理低浓度的磺胺二甲嘧啶（SMZ）废水。研究了各种SMZ浓度对养分去除，SMZ降解和污泥特性的长期影响。在244天的运行期间，在各种SMZ浓度和水力停留时间下，SMZ的总体去除效率可达到95.4±4.5％。反应器显示出高的化学需氧量和NH ₄ ⁺-N去除效率分别达到93.0％和96.2％。系统中的污泥浓度保持在4.1±0.3 g / L，没有过多的污泥排放。SMZ的用量对污泥特性有明显的影响。反应器在SMZ压力下长期运行后，MBR中的细胞外聚合物质（EPS）含量降低。低的污泥浓度和减少的EPS含量也有利于减轻膜污染。因此，本研究提供了一种低成本，高效且简单的方法来处理含SMZ的废水。