Anoxic treatment of phenolic wastewater in sequencing batch reactor

Studies were conducted on the anoxic phenol removal using granular denitrifying sludge in sequencing batch reactor at different cycle lengths and influent phenol concentrations. Results showed that removal exceeded 80% up to an influent phenol concentration of 1050 mg/l at 6 h cycle length, which corresponded to 6.4 kg COD/m3/d. Beyond this, there was a steep decrease in phenol and COD removal efficiencies. This was accompanied by an increase in nitrite concentration in the effluent. On an average, 1 g nitrate-N was consumed per 3.4 g phenol COD removal. Fraction of COD available for sludge growth was calculated to be 11%.