Removal of nutrients and organic pollutants from domestic wastewater treatment by sponge-based moving bed biofilm reactor

This study evaluates the efficiency of domestic wastewater treatment via Sponge-Based Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (S-MBBR). The laboratory-based treatment plan uses polyurethane sponge with a specific surface area was 260 m(2)/m(3) as a carrier. The treatment plan operated under four different organic load rate: OLR1 = 0.4 kg BOD/m(3).day; OLR2 = 0.6 kg BOD/m(3).day; OLR3 = 0.8 kg BOD/m(3).day; and OLR4 = 1.0 kg BOD/m(3).day. During 80 d of the experiment, the highest treatment efficiency was at the organic load rate of 0.4 kg BOD/m(3).day, with COD, SS, TN and TP were found to be 85.0 +/- 12.9%, 85.7 +/- 5.3%, 68.9 +/- 1.7%, and 40.3 +/- 0.2%, respectively. In which, the influent SS concentration were from 117.3 to 126.0 mg/L, the effluent concentration were in ranged 18.0 to 34.22 mg/L, respectively. The values of influent and effluent COD were 298.8 +/- 12.88 and 44.8 +/- 3.78 mg/L in turn. The OLR1 influent TN, TP concentrations were respectively 47.9 +/- 2.11 and 3.6 +/- 0.15 mg/L; the effluent TN, TP concentration were 14.9 +/- 0.18 and 2.2 +/- 0.06 mg/L, respectively. The study suggests that the effluent is within the allowable limits of National technical regulation on domestic wastewater (Column B1), indicating the applicability of S-MBBR for the domestic wastewater treatment plant.