Open AccessBiodegradation of benzene-toluene-xylene in petrochemical industries wastewater through anaerobic sequencing biofilm batch reactor in bench scale
Author(s) -
Maryam Estebar,
Mohammad Mehdi Amin,
Parinaz Poursafa,
Mohammad Ghasemian,
Nematollah Jaafarzadeh,
Hassan Hashemi,
Ali Fatehizadeh
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of environmental health engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2277-9183
DOI - 10.4103/2277-9183.96145
Subject(s) - biodegradation , petrochemical , toluene , wastewater , sequencing batch reactor , microbial consortium , xylene , benzene , chemistry , bioreactor , pulp and paper industry , rotating biological contactor , batch reactor , waste management , chromatography , environmental science , environmental engineering , organic chemistry , microorganism , catalysis , biology , bacteria , engineering , genetics
Aims: This study aims to evaluate the performance of the anaerobic sequencing batch biofilm reactor (ASBBR) for biodegradation of Benzene-Toluene-Xylene (BTX) that is present in petrochemical synthetic wastewater. Materials and Methods: A laboratory-scale ASBBR was used to treat a synthetic substrate mixture representing petrochemical wastewater that contained BTX. The operation schedule was: Fill time: 10 minutes, reaction time: 22.8 hours, settling time: 60 minutes, and decant time: 10 minutes, at 35C. The BTX samples were analyzed by gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) equipped with head space. Results: After reaching to stable operation, the reactor was exposed to influent BTX concentrations of 5, 20, and 50 mg/l, with overall organic loading rate of 3 g COD/l.d resulting in 61, 79, and 50% removal efficiencies for the BTX, respectively. At this time, the removal efficiencies for COD were 75, 90, and 70%.Conclusions: The optimum BTX removal of 79% was achieved in 3 g COD/l.d and HRT of 3.8 days, at influent BTX concentration of 20 mg/l. Thus, it could be concluded that ASBBR was a feasible, efficient, and consistent technology for treatment of petrochemical wastewaters containing BTX. The ASBBR might be an alternative to intermittent systems as well as batch systems due to its superior operational flexibility