Modeling the Fate of Phenol in Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor Sewage Treatment Plant

Phenol is one of a major pollutant existing in the wastewaters from several industrial activities. Biological removal of the phenolic compounds at full scale treatment plant is very complicated processes. This study investigates the fate of phenol biodegradation in moving bed biofilm reactor sewage treatment plant (MBBR-STP) was investigated. A computer-based mechanistic model, TOXCHEM V4.1, and as well as sensitivity analysis were used to predicts the fate of phenol biodegradation in MBBR-STP. The results showed that MBBR-STP has successfully achieved removal efficiency of 90%, 87%, 100%, 89%, 48%, 90%, and 96% for COD and BOD5, PO4, H2S, oil and grease, SO4, NH4, TSS, and phenol, respectively. However, a high nitrate (NO3) concentration of 60 mg/L was produced, indicating the occurrence of nitrification process. The phenol fate analysis demonstrated that 0.3, 0.5, 6, 93.2% went for volatilization, sorption, untreated and biodegradation, respectively. Nevertheless, the sensitivity analysis indicated that increasing the influent flow rate from 200 to 1000 m(3)/day has reduced biodegradability of phenol from 96 to 82%, respectively, whereas increasing MLSS concentration 500-6000 mg/L incorporated resilient sorption and degradation processes by 0.2-66% and 93-34%, respectively, and MBBR media fill fraction of 88% achieved about 100% phenol removal. The results conclude that MBBR-STP is efficient in removing phenol, and the TOXCHEM V4.1 has successfully predict the fate of phenol.