Coke wastewater is an extremely toxic industrial effluent that requires treatment before discharge. A bench-scale, anaerobic-anoxic-oxic membrane bioreactor (A(1)/A(2)/O-MBR) system was utilized to treat real coke wastewater with complete sludge retention. In a 160-d test, the A(1)/A(2)/O-MBR system stably removed 87.9 +/- 1.6% of chemical oxygen demand, 99.4 +/- 0.3% of turbidity, and 99.7 +/- 3.5% of NH4+-N from coke wastewater. The membrane rejected almost all suspended solids; hence, a low food-to-microorganism environment was created to degrade refractory substances and reduce sludge production rates. The microbial diversity in the MBR system declined over time; however, neither pollutant removal efficiency nor total biological activity was adversely affected. Membrane fouling, which occurred during the operation of the MBR system, was principally resulted from the colloidal fraction of supernatant in suspension. Physical cleaning removed initial deposits of particles; however, prolonged operation resulted in severe clogging that can only be removed by chemical cleaning. An A(1)/A(2)/O-MBR system with short intermittent physical cleaning was recommended for coke wastewater treatment. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.