The overall performance of a mesophilic anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) for synthetic municipal wastewater treatment was investigated under a range of organic loading rate (OLR). A very steady and high chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal (around 98%) was achieved over a broad range of volumetric OLR of 0.8-10 gCOD/L/d. The sustainable volumetric and sludge OLR satisfying a permeate COD below 50 mg/L for general reuse was 6 gCOD/L/d and 0.63 gCOD/gMLVSS (mixed liquor volatile suspended solids)/d, respectively. At a high sludge OLR of over 0.6 gCOD/gMLVSS/d, the AnMBR achieved high methane production of over 300 ml/gCOD (even approaching the theoretical value of 382 ml/gCOD). A low biomass production of 0.015-0.026 gMLVSS/gCOD and a sustainable flux of 6 L/m(2)/h were observed. The integration of a heat pump and forward osmosis into the mesophilic AnMBR process would be a promising way for net energy recovery from typical municipal wastewater in a temperate area. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.