Accelerated start-up of moving bed biofilm reactor by using a novel suspended carrier with porous surface

A novel suspended carrier with porous surface was firstly prepared by coating a sponge on the inside and outside of a hard polyethylene ring. Herein the effects of the sponge thickness (0, 2, 4, 6 mm) and pore size (17, 45, 85 pores per inch, ppi) on the performance of the start-up stage in moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) were investigated. The results indicated that the home-made carrier with the sponge thickness of 4 mm and the pore size of 45 ppi, defined as SC4-45, showed the best performance, which obtained high biomass concentration of 2,136.6 mg/L, oxygen uptake rate for COD of 150.1 mg O2/h and oxygen uptake rate for NH4+-N of 17.4 mg O2/h. The DGGE profiles of the biofilms obtained in SC4-45 and a commercial carrier showed a similar community as the Dice similarity coefficients between two samples was 0.72. Furthermore, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis reveals dominance of Sphaerotilus sp. and Aeromonas sp. in the community of both samples. Moreover, for the MBBR based on SC4-45, COD and NH4+-N removal rates reached 99.5 ± 1.1 and 93.6 ± 2.3 % at the end of the start-up stage, much higher than those of the commercial carrier, 74.9 ± 2.7 and 40.0 ± 1.8 %, respectively. These indicated the novel carrier obtained a quick start-up.