Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance

Al‐Amshawee, Sajjad Khudhur Abbas; Yunus, Mohd Yusri Bin Mohd; Alalwan, Hayder A; Lee, Woo Hyoung; Dai, Fei

Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance

2022

Al‐Amshawee, Sajjad Khudhur Abbas | Yunus, Mohd Yusri Bin Mohd | Alalwan, Hayder A | Lee, Woo Hyoung | Dai, Fei

BACKGROUND: Biofilm carriers were introduced in the early 1990s mainly to abate chemical oxygen demand (COD). However, studies have continued investigating few biocarriers repeatedly, without studying a large number of carriers in a single study under similar conditions. RESULTS: The current study investigated the performance of nine synthetic and eight natural biofilm carriers for 7 days of palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment in terms of COD removal. A fixed bed biofilm reactor (FBBR) was 100% packed with biocarriers and operated at 35 °C. Performance based on the 7th day COD removal could be ranked in the following order: green ammonia absorption stone (91%), K1 micro (88%), coral sand (87.8%), volcanic stone (86.6%), Micro Media (85.5%), 1.6 cm BioBall (85%), pebble (82.4%), porous ceramic ring (82.3), K1 (82.1%), non‐porous ceramic ring (80.9%), brown ammonia absorption stone (78.6%), biological filter (77.7%), Ultra Media (76.8%), blue media (69.3%), 3.0 cm BioBall (68.8%), 2.5 cm BioBall (66.5%), and loofah sponge (63%). CONCLUSION: The smallest carrier, K1 micro, yielded the highest COD removal (88%) on day 7 among the other synthetic carriers, while green ammonia absorption stones provided the highest quality effluent from day 1 (3565 mg COD L⁻¹) to day 7 (780 mg COD L⁻¹) and delivered the shortest start‐up compared with all natural and synthetic carriers. The discussion revealed that all carrier functionalities (i.e., scale, shape, surface pores, roughness, material, surface area, porosity, and durability) play a key role in deciding carrier quality. The current study also introduced ‘carrier efficiency limit’, which refers to the carrier's capacity to entrap biomass and immobilize microorganisms. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).

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