Nitrification Kinetics and Simultaneous Removal of Biomass and Phosphorus in Rotating Biological Contactors

This paper presents some important aspects of the Rotating Biological Contactor. (1) Steady-state biofilm kinetics and its application to the design of an RBC aiming at nitrification : Using the proposed kinetics in which the flux of rate-limiting substrate is expressed as a function of the bulk substrate concentration, liquid boundary layer thickness, liquid film thickness, and molecular diffusion coefficient and intrinsic reaction rate of the substrate, the relationship between the bulk ammonia concentration and ammonia flux was predicted at various sizes and rotating speeds of disk. Experimental verification of the predicted results was also made. A new disk media, i.e., reticulated media with surface protrusions,was proposed to promote the external diffusion of soluble substrates to the biofilm, and to reduce the disk weight. (2) Simultaneous removal of the detached biomass and precipitated phosphorous in a two-storey RBC:A two-storey RBC, whose upper and lower parts function as the RBC trough and storage space of the detached biomass, was operated in a four-staged unit. Experimental investigation showed that the phosphorus precipitated by aluminium was adsorbed to the biofilm, and settled into the lower part as the detached biomass. The removal efficiency of the detached biomass was very high resulting in an effluent suspended solids concentration of about 10 ppm.