PILOT-PLANT STUDY OF AN UPGRADED ROTATING BIOLOGICAL CONTACTOR

This paper deals with the experimental results obtained by the pilot plant of an upgraded Rotating Biological Contactor(RBC). This is a two-story RBC which is designed to simultaneously achieve the biological oxidation and removal of detached biomass in the trough. The authors constructed a three-stage pilot plant with an octagonal stainless mesh contactor 2 m across to collect the design information of an upgraded RBC. The municipal wastewater treatment was conducted to examine the RBC's performance. According to experimental results, with a contactor rotating speed of 2 rpm,the effluent TOC and NH4-N concentrations were about 10 g/M3 and 5 g/M3 respectively, at the hydraulic loading of 70 l/m2/d, corresponding to a BOD loading of about 8 g/m2/d. The electrical power consumption of the RBC was 0.005kWh/m2/d at a contactor rotating speed of 1 rpm. A jet mixed separator(JMS) was used as the physico-chemical pre-treatment unit of the RBC. With the addition of a coagulant,simultaneous flocculation and sedimentation of the suspended particles occurred in the JMS. This combined system of the JMS and RBC produced a clean effluent.