STUDY OF THE KINETIC MODELING IN HYBRID AND PURE MOVING BED BIOFILM REACTOR-MEMBRANE BIOREACTOR SYSTEMS FOR MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT

Abstract

The moving bed biofilm reactor-membrane bioreactor (MBBR-MBR) is a novel technology which constitutes a solution to conventional processes. In this study, a membrane bioreactor (MBR), a hybrid MBBR-MBR and a pure MBBR-MBR, working in parallel, were compared under a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 6 h. The hybrid MBBR-MBR had suspended and attached biomasses and the pure MBBR-MBR mainly contained attached biomass as biofilm. The kinetic parameters for heterotrophic and autotrophic biomasses were evaluated and related to organic matter and nitrogen removals. The pure MBBR-MBR had the highest efficiency of total nitrogen (TN) removal with a value of 63.21±11.01%. The hybrid MBBR-MBR showed the highest chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency with a value of 84.10±2.25%. The kinetic study supported the efficiencies of COD and TN removals as the hybrid MBBR-MBR and pure MBBR-MBR showed the best kinetic performances for the heterotrophic and autotrophic biomasses, respectively. The presence of the attached biomass improved the organic matter and nitrogen removals in the hybrid and pure MBBR-MBR systems, respectively.