Exploration of Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) Technology for Treatment of Municipal Wastewater in Erbil City

Abstract

Recently, biological treatment processes are widely used in wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) due to their relative low cost and reasonable removal efficiencies. Around the world, there are many WWTPs which based on rotating biological reactor (RBC) treatment processes ranging from small scale size (package unit plant) such as sewage compact treatment units to large size wastewater treatment plants. Generally, RBC used for both industrial and municipal wastewater treatment, but widely used as secondary treatment processes for municipal wastewater treatment, also used as a tertiary (advance) treatment for nitrification and denitrification. RBC is known as low energy consumption technology and low process complexity option for WWTP. This research aimed to study RBC for treatment of Erbil municipal wastewater. The operation expenditure (OPEX) is low because it consumes low energy and is easy to operate. As it is simple system no complex. Consequently, less manpower and skill are required for operation and maintenance. On the other side, RBC has slow process start-up, several mechanical problems and limited process flexibility, and relatively high capital (CAPEX). This research presenting a review of RBCs technology for wastewater treatment process. Also, the proposed RBC unit of WWTP for Erbil has been designed as an aerobic attached growth biological treatment process, which has reasonable removal efficiencies that achieve the consents for reuse especially for irrigation purposes which is more than 85%.