Possibility of treating rubber factory wastewater in biological reactors using media with low specific surface area

Abstract

Four Covered Activated Ditch (CAD) type test reactors set with 25, 50, 75 and 100 m'/m 3 specific surface areas (SSA) of Bio-brush were tested under 0.5, 1.0, 2.5 and 3.5 CODkg/rn/d organic loading rates (OLR). Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) of the treated effluent of each reactor were monitored to see the efficiency of treatment. In order to minimize the cost of a treatment system the main aim of this study is to investigate the possibility of treating rubber factory waste in CAD system with low SSA (<100 m 2 /m 3) Bio-brush media. Although the cost of Bio-brush media with low SSA is less, the possibility of treating effluent with media below 100 m 2 /m 3 SSA in completely anaerobic treatment systems is not economical in terms of treatment efficiency. However, a CAD system with low SSA of Bio-brush media may be effectively used to remove COD (about 60-75%) with a final aerobic treatment part for removing remaining pollutants.