(91a) Introduction to an Advanced Moving Bed Bioreactor (MBBR) Technology for Industrial Wastewater Treatment
AIChE Spring Meeting and Global Congress on Process Safety
2014
2014 Spring Meeting & 10th Global Congress on Process Safety
17th Topical on Refinery Processing
Environmental and Water Solutions
Tuesday, April 1, 2014 - 1:30pm to 2:00pm
Aerobic biological treatment using different configurations based on suspended growth or fixed film growth of biomass is in practice since the advent of treatment of municipal sewage and subsequently adopted for industrial wastewater treatment. Conventional Activated Sludge Process (CASP) and its variations, Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR), Trickling Filter, and Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) are some of the examples of these configurations. Moving Bed Bioreactor (MBBR) is relatively a newer fixed film treatment configuration initially put in to practice in UK and Germany in late 70s. The heart of the MBBR process lies in the geometry and surface area of the media that floats in the biological reaction tank and provides the surface for biomass to grow. This paper introduces a revolutionary floating media for MBBR process which is very unique in its shape and has five to six times more active surface area compared to other MBBR media available in the market. This media is being promoted by Aquatech under trade name ‘AquaChip’. The paper introduces the salient features and advantages of this media and briefly discusses various configurations it can be applied to optimally treat variety of wastewater.