Phosphorus removal from industrial discharge impacted municipal wastewater using sequencing batch moving bed biofilm reactor

This study aimed to investigate the performance of a sequencing batch moving bed biofilm reactor (SB-MBBR) for biological P removal (Bio-P) treating diluted municipal wastewater at 10 degrees C and 20 degrees C, with volatile fatty acid (VFA) dosing during weekdays and without VFA dosing during weekends to simulate an industrial influenced wastewater. The overall results revealed that phosphorus removal efficiency for weekdays reached 53 % and 81 % at cold and moderated temperatures respectively. However, phosphorus removal efficiency for the weekend was 49 % for cold temperature and 52 % for moderate temperature. It was concluded that low temperature and low VFA might have suppressed the phosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) performance. Besides, high extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) production might have hampered the PAOs activity, which could be linked to the observed high consumption of soluble chemical oxygen demand (SCOD) to P release ratio and thick biomass growth in the cold system.

Automated summary

The study investigated the performance of a sequencing batch moving bed biofilm reactor for biological P removal in diluted municipal wastewater with VFA dosing on weekdays and without VFA dosing on weekends. Results showed that low temperature and low VFA could suppress the performance of phosphate accumulating organisms, and high EPS production might hinder the activity of PAOs and lead to thick biomass growth in the system.