Biodegradation of Heterogeneous Pollutants in Hybrid MBBR System: Resilience Assessment under Different Shock Stress Conditions

Abstract

The sudden increase in phenol concentrations is frequently observed in coke-oven, petrochemical, and petroleum refinery waste streams due to changes in process parameters, posing challenges for the biological treatment processes due to the combined toxic effects of phenol with other inorganic pollutants present in the same wastewater. Owing to that fact, the versatility of the designed biological treatment system against multiple shock loading conditions needs to be analyzed before field-scale implementation. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the stability of a continuous hybrid moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) system against multiple and extreme phenol shock stress conditions and its impacts on the degradation of each pollutant (phenol, NH4–N,