Investigation on removal of high organic load of industrial wastewater by cascade filters (bio-filters with different media)

Abstract

Industrial wastewater is one of the most significant environmental pollutants, and most industry owners shirk this responsibility due to the excessive expenses. Thus, the present research attempts to provide a suitable and highly efficient method with lower investment expenses in order to encourage industry owners to use this system and propose the best option for industrial wastewater treatment. The research aims to control water pollution, maintain ecosystem balance and reuse wastewater in industry. In this study, the process of reducing Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Total Suspended Solids and Chemical Oxygen Demand from wastewater with high Organic load has been investigated by fixed-bed sequencing batch reactors (biological, adsorption) with a volume of 24 L. The minimum and maximum system efficiencies were 43 and 88% in terms of Chemical Oxygen Demand for the removal of organic matter, 30 and 81% for the removal of Nitrogen, 88 and 99% for the removal of Phosphorus and 43 and 77% for removal of Total Suspended Solids, respectively. Anaerobic Filters system showed good efficiency for removing the organic matter, Nitrogen and Phosphorus from industrial wastewater with high organic load. Results show a very long Solids Retention Time for essential microorganisms in the decomposition of toxic and inhibitory compounds, absorption of shock loads or non-biodegradable toxic compounds, the possibility of higher volumetric loading compared to aerobic processes and lower cell mass efficiency followed by important economic and environmental benefits in relation to the recycling and disposal of the produced cell mass.