Sewage treatment in a rotating biological contactor (RBC) system

A. Tawfik, B.G. Temmink, G. Zeeman, A. Klapwijk

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The treatment of domestic wastewater at a temperature of 12¿24°C was investigated in an RBC system. The RBC consists of a two stage system connected in series. The system was operated at different organic loading rates (OLR's) and hydraulic retntion times (HRT's) in order to optimize the RBC performance. The overall removal efficiencies for chemical oxygen demand (CODtotal, CODsuspended and CODcolloidal) significantly decreased when decreasing the total HRT from 10 to 2.5 h and increasing the OLR from 11 to 47 g COD/m2.d. However, the effluent quality of CODsoluble remained unaffected. Most of the COD was removed in the 1st stage and nitrification took place in the 2nd stage of the two stage system.The overall nitrification efficiency was 49% at total OLR of 11 gCOD/m2.d. At total HRT's of 10, 5 and 2.5 h, the Escherchia coli (E. coli) concentration was reduced by a value of 1.6, 1.5 and 0.8 log10 respectively. The sludge volume index (SVI) decreased as the OLR increased. However, the SVI of the excess sludge produced in the RBC under different OLR's was always
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)275-289
JournalWater Air and Soil Pollution
Volume175
Issue number1-4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2006

Keywords

  • suspended-growth reactor
  • domestic sewage
  • supplemental aeration
  • escherichia-coli
  • nitrification
  • performance
  • oxygen
  • wastewaters
  • removal

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Sewage treatment in a rotating biological contactor (RBC) system'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this