为了测试将生物预处理作为膜预处理步骤的可行性，已经提出了几个目标:确定实验室规模的生物过滤器可靠地产生有机碳浓度降低的出水的能力；如果水被预氯化，则量化去除效率的增加或减少；测试各种下游过滤器，以去除生物过滤器中产生的生物量；此外，开发和测试“膜分析”，以评估一种设计相对于另一种设计在减少膜污染方面的相对效率。这些分析将作为研究实验阶段的筛选工具。设计了一个实验系统，在实验室中检查生物预处理，检查氯化对溶解有机碳（DOC）的影响，比较包装材料，并检查后过滤步骤。 设计的重要部分包括使用不同的过滤介质和考虑氧化步骤。后过滤步骤也很重要。空床接触时间选择为20分钟，以尽量减少该变量的影响。包括内部控制在内的所有治疗都要进行生物污染检测。包括20篇参考文献。

Several objectives have been set forth to test the feasibility of utilizing biological pretreatment as a membrane pretreatment step: determine the ability of the laboratory scale biological filters to reliably produce effluent water with reduced concentrations of organic carbon; quantify the increase or decrease in removal efficiencies if the water is prechlorinated; test a variety of downstream filters to remove biomass produced in the biological filters; and, develop and test "membrane assays" that will assess the relative efficacy of one design over another for reducing fouling on membranes. These assays will serve as a screening tool for the experimental phase of the research. An experimental system was designed to examine biological pretreatment in the laboratory and to examine the influence of chlorination on the dissolved organic carbon (DOC), compare packing material, and examine the postfiltration step. The use of different filter media and consideration of an oxidation step were included as important parts of the design. Also important was the postfiltration step. Empty bed contact time was chosen at 20 minutes to minimize the impact of that variable. Biofouling assays are implemented on all treatments including internal controls. Includes 20 references.