(60ag) Optimising Nutrient Removal of Moving BED Biofilm Reactor Process

Wastewater effluents with high nutrient content (nitrogen and phosphorus) can cause several issues when discharged into the environment, such as oxygen consumption and eutrophication. Consequently, the removal of nutrient from the effluents of wastewater treatment plants is essential. Recently, the removal of nutrient using biological processes have been comprehensively studied. Most of the biological processes typically rely on different environmental redox conditions (anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic) for nutrient removals The present study evaluates the potential of moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) process for organic carbon and nutrient removal from effluent of municipal WWTP at different hydraulic retention time (HRT) and nitrate recycle ratio (R). Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to t optimize the MBBR for high nutrient removals. Under optimized conditions (HRT=2 hr), the MBBR showed a removal efficiencies of 98.50%, 93.5%, 94.70% and 96.50% for COD, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP) and ammonium, respectively, with a nitrate recycle ratio of 2. The developed two quadratic response surface models for TN and TP removal displayed a satisfactory and statically significant the experimental and the predicted values.