The performance of a submerged membrane photocatalytic reactor (sMPR) consisted of polyvinylidene fluoride-titanium dioxide (PVDF-TiO2) hollow fiber membranes was evaluated for the separation and degradation of synthetic oily wastewater under UV irradiation. The effects of operating parameters such as TiO2 catalyst loading, membrane module packing density, feed oil concentration and air bubble flow rates (ABFR) on the permeate flux, oil rejection and total organic carbon (TOC) degradation (in the bulk feed solution) were studied. The comparison of TOC degradation based on direct photolysis, neat PVDF membrane and PVDF-TiO2 membrane were determined. It was clearly observed that TOC degradation using PVDF-TiO2 membrane was remarkably higher compared to neat PVDF membrane. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analyses showed that oil components in the wastewater could be efficiently degraded in the presence of TiO2 under UV irradiation. The average flux of membrane was reported to be around 73.04 L/m(2) h using PVDF membrane embedded with 2 wt.% TiO2 at 250 ppm oil concentration with module packing density of 353% and ABFR of 5 L/min. A remarkable TOC degradation and oil rejection as high as 80% and >90%, respectively, could be reached under these optimized conditions. The findings shown in this work provide useful information for the research of simultaneous separation and degradation of oily wastewater and facilitate the development of hybrid sMPR. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.