Expanded Bed Column Bioreactor Performance and Hydrodynamics

Studies on the removal of nitrogen constituents by a dual media expanded bed bioreactor showed substantial removals of about 85% COD and 80% total-N. Kinetic parameters obtained were: for growth, YH = 0.23mg/mg, (mu)H = 0.278day–1, KH = 461mg/L and bH = 0.0151day–1 and for denitrification, YHD = 0.670mg/mg, (mu)HD = 0.205day–1, KHD = 0.54mg/L and bHD = 0.0300day–1. Hydrodynamics studies gave Ut (terminal settling velocity) and Umf (minimum fluidization velocity) for bare GAC as 0.637m/s and 0.005m/s respectively. For GAC with biofilm, Ut was at 0.426-0.083m/s, with almost double the increase in buoyancy for particles carrying biofilm. This in turn reduced the Umf for GAC with biofilm, which was at 0.00620.0009m/s.