Sewage treatment efficacy and heavy metal removal in moving bed biofilm based treatment plants of northern India

Moving bed biofilm reactor based sewage treatment plants (STPs) have been installed in northern India over the last decade. As such, there are no performance evaluation studies of this technology in the region. Evaluation of four such STPs was carried out in terms of removal efficiencies of physico-chemical parameters, microbiological parameters and heavy metals. Results showed that the average chemical oxygen demand, biological oxygen demand, total suspended solids, total nitrogen and total phosphorus removal of all STPs ranged from 74 to 91%, 81 to 95%, 79 to 93%, 44 to 80% and 58 to 85%, respectively. Total and thermotolerant (faecal) coliform in the influent and effluent of STPs ranged from 1.5 × 10⁴ to 9.3 × 10⁷ most probable number (MPN)/100 mL and 0 MPN/mL to 2,400 MPN/mL, respectively. Heavy metal concentration (nickel, zinc, cadmium, iron, lead, chromium, and copper) in effluent samples of all the STPs was below Indian discharge limits except lead. Integrated efficiency (IE) of the STPs was also evaluated and the results showed that the actual IE of all STPs was 0–10% larger than standard IE, indicating the suitability of the technology in the region.