Treatment of Wastewater in Fluidized Bed Bioreactor Using Low Density Biosupport

In this study, a biocarrier made up of low density polypropylene of surface area 524 mm2 per particle and of density 870 kg/m3 was used in the treatment of wastewater using fluidized bed reactor. Holdup studies are performed for bed heights (0.2 m to 0.8 m) to predict the operating conditions. The effect of Bed height (0.6 m to 1 m), Hydraulic retention time (6 hr to 40 hr), and superficial gas velocity (0.00106 m/s, 0.00159 m/s, 0.00212 m/s), Concentration (2 g/l – 7.5 g/l) on the percentage of COD reduction were studied. For bed height of 0.8m, optimum holdup and maximum COD reduction was obtained. From the results, it was observed that percentage of COD reduction increases as the superficial gas velocity increases and decreases as the initial concentration decreases. A COD reduction of 97.5% was achieved at an initial concentration of 2 g/l and for a superficial gas velocity of 0.00212 m/s at hydraulic retention time of 40 hr.