Abstract:
A Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) is a biological wastewater treatment system that the biomass is attached to media carrier. The carriers move freely along with the water in the reactor. A lab-scale reactor with two total liquid volume of 2L (not included media) was used in the study. The reactor was filled with the Aqwise plastic media to 50% of the volume of empty reactor and fed continuously with synthetic low strength wastewater with the BOD concentration at 50-200 mg/L and controlled the aeration rate at 2.5 L/min. In the first experiment, Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) in each reactor was 3 hours at Surface Area Loading Rate (SALR) in the first reactor of 2.0, 3.0, 3.9, 7.9 gCOD/m2-d and the constant ammonia concentration at 20 mg/L was applied. Experimental results showed that, the 4 conditions had the efficiency to remove organic carbon and ammonium nitrogen at 97.9 % and 98.9%, respectively. As the SALR increased, the thickness of biofilm that is attached to the media increased. The surface detachment rates of the biofilm also increased, causing more suspended solid in the system. In the MBBR reactor, the biofilm reached the concentration of 6,650 mgVSS/L of the reactor tank and the suspended solid was 141.2 mgVSS/L at the highest surface organic loading rate. In the secondary experiment, it was the study of hydraulic retention time (HRT) in the system of the MBBR. The hydraulic retention time was changed to 4, 3, 2 and 1 hour with the surface area loading rate constant at 4.87 gBOD/m2-d (7.8 gCOD/m2-d). The result showed that the HRT didnt significantly affect the efficiency of the system to remove the COD as the system still removed over 90% of the COD in all 4 conditions. However, the HRT affected the efficiency of the ammonia removal. When the HRT decreased, it increased the system performance of ammonia removal. The decreased retention time lowered the level of the suspended biomass in the system resulting in the better growth of the attached biomass. Therefore, the shortest HRT caused the biofilm to attach to the media at the concentration of 8,670 mgVSS/L. Meanwhile, the lowest suspended solid was 52.6 mgVSS/L. In the third experiment, it was the study of the working behavior of the MBBR system under the dynamics. The experiment created the condition that the system was under the hydraulic shock load for 2 hours. It was founded that the MBBR system endured the hydraulic shock load well because most of the biomass (around 97% of the whole mass) was the attached growth resulting in no wash out from the system. In the fourth experiment, it was the study of time for the lowest HRT of the MBBR system. According to the experiment, it was founded that the low concentration of wastewater with BOD was at 33 mg/L and the shortest time of water storage with the treatment performance over 75% was 30 minutes. According to the findings, the MBBR system worked well with the low-strength wastewater. The result of this experiment could pave the way for operating the wastewater treatment plant of Bangkok Metropolitan Administrationwith frequent challenges of the low strength wastewater in the system and the hydraulic shock load.