The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of diatomite filter aid on fouling and performance of membrane bioreactor (MBR) after high salt shock. The results show that diatomite additive is an effective approach for the performance improvement of both membrane fouling and pollutants removal when MBR was suffering high salt shock. Compared with the control reactor

the performance of MBR is enhanced by addition of 60 mg·L-1 diatomite addition

the removal of COD

NH4+-N and TP increases by 4.9%

3.2% and 74.5%

respectively. It was observed that after high salt shock the membrane fouling rate is significantly higher

about four-fold

for the contrast than for the MBR with diatomite addition. The flocculating and adsorption capacities of diatomite make soluble products of microbial metabolism (SMP) significant decrease. So

the rate of membrane fouling was significantly mitigated. Furthermore

the addition of diatomite makes mean flocs sizes (dp) and its related hydrophobic (RH) increase

which would be beneficial to the mitigation of membrane fouling.