Treatment of high-strength sewage by textile fibers-based sequencing batch biofilm reactor for simultaneous removal of organics and nutrients

Upgrading sequencing batch reactor using attached biofilm

“…The SVI in upgraded SBR was in the range of (33-98) ml g −1 , indicating better settling characteristics of the sludge with comparison to the results obtained by Ref. (Sowndarya et al, 2020). High TSS removal efficiency points to the increase of attached biomass on the fiberglass carries.…”

“…Reduction in the OLR showed less carbon was supplied to the microorganisms in the reactor and hence, less growth occurred. Sowndarya et al, (2020) confirmed that the sludge production and the volume of the biological reactor can be reduced significantly in SBBR due to the high surface area provided by the biofilm media because the value of yield coefficient (Y) attained in SBBR is lower than SBR, while the values of decay coefficient (k d ) attained in SBBR are higher than SBR. The value of "Y' can be used to assess the amount of sludge generated in the system.…”

“…Abdulgader et al, (2009) achieved a COD removal efficiency of 89.7% at an organic loading rate of 0.38 kg COD m −3 day −1 using a laboratory-scale aerobic sequencing batch flexible fiber biofilm reactor (SBFFBR). Sowndarya et al, (2020) investigated polypropylene fibers as biofilm carriers in SBBR for the treatment of real wastewater. The removal efficiency of COD was 93% at an organic loading rate of 278 g m −3 day −1 .…”

“…This could serve as an advantage for the biological treatment of toxic organic pollutant such as phenol. It was reported that the adhesion and the growth of microorganisms on the surface of the fiber-based bio-carriers are good (Sowndarya et al, 2020).…”

“…In wastewater treatments, many types of biofilm carriers have previously been used, such as activated carbon fiber (Hai et al, 2015), imitation-aquatic-grass spiral fibers composed of 70% of dacron and 30% of polypropylene (Zhao et al, 2017), polymeric fibrous (Wang et al, 2018), waste material, namely recycled corrugated wire hose cover (Tombola et al, 2019), textile-based polypropylene fibers (Sowndarya et al, 2020), and rayon flexible fiber (Abdulgader et al, 2020), but the use of fiberglass as a biofilm carrier in SBR has not been studied for municipal and phenol wastewater treatment. The use of fiberglass biofilm carriers in the SBR system was investigated in this study to examine the potential use of attached biofilm to upgrade the conventional version of SBR to treat high strength wastewater in short retention time by assessing the removal efficiency of pollutants in the reactor with and without fiberglass.…”