Novel carrier for seafood wastewater treatment using moving bed biofilm reactor system

Abstract

In this work, seafood wastewater was treated by using MBBR reactor over a novel carrier (PUF-PVA gel) derived from the combination of a porous (PUF) and hydrophilic surface (PVA gel). A freezing-thawing method was used for the preparation of the novel PUF-PVA gel which is reported for the first time. Experimental results indicated that PUF-PVA gel carrier which possesses an excellent textural structure (specific surface area of 3.4 m2/g, pore size in the range of 10 – 40 μm and hydrophilic surface) accounts for faster water immersion and better microbial adhesion, resulting in the biofilm content attached at the start-up stage 2.4 times higher relative to conventional PUF carrier alone. The MBBR system can be operated stably at a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 7 hours in which the organic loading rate ranged from 2.5 kg COD/m3.day to 5.1 kg COD/m3.day. When operated at the organic loading rate of 2.5 kg COD/m3.day, the maximum COD and the nitrogen removal efficiency of MBBR based on the PUF-PVA gel carrier were 92 ± 0.6% and 89 ± 3.4%, respectively, which is higher than that of the PUF carrier.