Phenol biodegradation by rotating biological contactor

Abstract

This study presents the removal performance of phenol in a three-stages cross flow laboratory-scale rotating biological contactor (RBC). The impact of major process and operating variables, such as input hydraulic loading (HL), input COD loading, and temperature of wastewater on the total removal efficiency of the system were examined. It was observed that the phenol removal performance worsened when the HL increased, and optimum total phenol removal efficiency of 99.9% was observed at loading of 4×10 −3 m −3 m −2 per day and COD concentration of 800 mg dm −3. On the basis of overall treatment of phenol containing wastewater in the RBC, the optimal removal performance was noted at the end of second stage inclusive the first one, but the third stage has not significant influence on phenol removal efficiency. The effect of temperature on improving the removal efficiency was significant in the temperature range of 13–43 °C, whose operating condition at 36 °C was optimum. The study of different phenol removal mechanism shows that about 10% of phenol was removed by physical adsorption and evaporation in RBC reactor.