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Biodegradation kinetics of a mixture of phenols in a sequencing batch moving bed biofilm reactor under starvation and shock loads
Author(s) -
Buitrón Germán,
MorenoAndrade Iván
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of chemical technology and biotechnology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.64
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1097-4660
pISSN - 0268-2575
DOI - 10.1002/jctb.2566
Subject(s) - biodegradation , chemistry , degradation (telecommunications) , phenol , sequencing batch reactor , phenols , kinetics , batch reactor , starvation , bioreactor , biomass (ecology) , chromatography , microorganism , shock (circulatory) , chemical engineering , bacteria , pulp and paper industry , organic chemistry , environmental engineering , wastewater , catalysis , environmental science , ecology , biology , medicine , physics , genetics , quantum mechanics , engineering , endocrinology , telecommunications , computer science
BACKGROUND: The objective of this research was to study the biodegradation kinetics of a mixture of phenol, 4‐chorophenol 2,4‐dichlorophenol and 2,4,6‐trichlorophenol in a moving bed sequencing batch reactor (SBR) subjected to starvation and shock loads. The effect was evaluated on the degradation time and on the specific degradation rate. RESULTS: The bacteria present in the system degraded effectively the mixture of phenols. Degradation efficiencies were higher than 98% as total phenols and greater than 95% as organic carbon. It was observed that starvation and shock loads had only a transient effect on microorganisms degradation rate. The substrate removal rate decreased when the perturbations were applied, but for subsequent SBR cycles the previous activity was recovered. Results also demonstrated that suspended biomass was more sensitive to changes than the attached biomass present in the moving bed. CONCLUSIONS: The moving bed SBR presented robust performance under variable influent concentrations of a mixture of inhibitory compounds. Copyright © 2011 Society of Chemical Industry