Integrated Approach to Treatment of High-Strength Organic Wastewater by Using Anaerobic Rotating Biological Contactor

Abstract

This research assesses the performance and methane production of a novel combined system for treatment of high-strength organic wastewater. The proposed system is composed of a rotating biological contactor (RBC) process under anaerobic conditions, in conjunction with a moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) as the combining aerobic process. Various operational parameters were tested to maximize the chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal performance and methane gas production from treating high-strength synthetic wastewater. The identified optimal parameters include hydraulic retention time, organic loading rate, and disk rotational speed, equal to 5 days, 7 rotations per minute (rpm), and 2 kg COD/m3/day, respectively. Under these conditions, the combined system achieved high removal efficiency (98% from influent COD of 1, mg/L) with the additional benefit of methane production [116.6 L/day from a 46-L anaerobic rotating biological contactor (AnRBC) reactor]. Also, analysis of kinetic models of experimental results from the AnRBC stage indicated the suitability of the Stover-Kincannon model with a prediction accuracy of 93%. The results confirmed the effectiveness of integrated AnRBC systems in achieving both high removal efficiency and methane production. Thus, this system is recommended for treating high-strength organic wastewater.