Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance

BACKGROUND: Biofilm carriers were introduced in the early 1990s mainly to abate chemical oxygen demand (COD). However, studies have continued investigating few biocarriers repeatedly, without studying a large number of carriers in a single study under similar conditions. RESULTS: The current study i...

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Main Authors: Al-Amshawee, Sajjad, Mohd Yusri, Mohd Yunus, Alalwan, Hayder A., Lee, Woo Hyoung, Dai, Fei
Format: Article
Language:English
English
Published: Society of Chemical Industry 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/1/17%20biocarriers.pdf
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/7/Experimental%20investigation%20of%20biofilm%20carriers.pdf
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author Al-Amshawee, Sajjad
Mohd Yusri, Mohd Yunus
Alalwan, Hayder A.
Lee, Woo Hyoung
Dai, Fei
author_facet Al-Amshawee, Sajjad
Mohd Yusri, Mohd Yunus
Alalwan, Hayder A.
Lee, Woo Hyoung
Dai, Fei
author_sort Al-Amshawee, Sajjad
building UMP Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description BACKGROUND: Biofilm carriers were introduced in the early 1990s mainly to abate chemical oxygen demand (COD). However, studies have continued investigating few biocarriers repeatedly, without studying a large number of carriers in a single study under similar conditions. RESULTS: The current study investigated the performance of nine synthetic and eight natural biofilm carriers for 7 days of palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment in terms of COD removal. A fixed bed biofilm reactor (FBBR) was 100% packed with biocarriers and operated at 35 °C. Performance based on the 7th day COD removal could be ranked in the following order: green ammonia absorption stone (91%), K1 micro (88%), coral sand (87.8%), volcanic stone (86.6%), Micro Media (85.5%), 1.6 cm BioBall (85%), pebble (82.4%), porous ceramic ring (82.3), K1 (82.1%), non-porous ceramic ring (80.9%), brown ammonia absorption stone (78.6%), biological filter (77.7%), Ultra Media (76.8%), blue media (69.3%), 3.0 cm BioBall (68.8%), 2.5 cm BioBall (66.5%), and loofah sponge (63%). CONCLUSION: The smallest carrier, K1 micro, yielded the highest COD removal (88%) on day 7 among the other synthetic carriers, while green ammonia absorption stones provided the highest quality effluent from day 1 (3565 mg COD L−1) to day 7 (780 mg COD L−1) and delivered the shortest start-up compared with all natural and synthetic carriers. The discussion revealed that all carrier functionalities (i.e., scale, shape, surface pores, roughness, material, surface area, porosity, and durability) play a key role in deciding carrier quality. The current study also introduced ‘carrier efficiency limit’, which refers to the carrier's capacity to entrap biomass and immobilize microorganisms. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI).
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institution Universiti Malaysia Pahang
institution_category Local University
language English
English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T03:36:30Z
publishDate 2023
publisher Society of Chemical Industry
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling ump-399642024-01-11T05:56:31Z http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/ Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance Al-Amshawee, Sajjad Mohd Yusri, Mohd Yunus Alalwan, Hayder A. Lee, Woo Hyoung Dai, Fei TP Chemical technology BACKGROUND: Biofilm carriers were introduced in the early 1990s mainly to abate chemical oxygen demand (COD). However, studies have continued investigating few biocarriers repeatedly, without studying a large number of carriers in a single study under similar conditions. RESULTS: The current study investigated the performance of nine synthetic and eight natural biofilm carriers for 7 days of palm oil mill effluent (POME) treatment in terms of COD removal. A fixed bed biofilm reactor (FBBR) was 100% packed with biocarriers and operated at 35 °C. Performance based on the 7th day COD removal could be ranked in the following order: green ammonia absorption stone (91%), K1 micro (88%), coral sand (87.8%), volcanic stone (86.6%), Micro Media (85.5%), 1.6 cm BioBall (85%), pebble (82.4%), porous ceramic ring (82.3), K1 (82.1%), non-porous ceramic ring (80.9%), brown ammonia absorption stone (78.6%), biological filter (77.7%), Ultra Media (76.8%), blue media (69.3%), 3.0 cm BioBall (68.8%), 2.5 cm BioBall (66.5%), and loofah sponge (63%). CONCLUSION: The smallest carrier, K1 micro, yielded the highest COD removal (88%) on day 7 among the other synthetic carriers, while green ammonia absorption stones provided the highest quality effluent from day 1 (3565 mg COD L−1) to day 7 (780 mg COD L−1) and delivered the shortest start-up compared with all natural and synthetic carriers. The discussion revealed that all carrier functionalities (i.e., scale, shape, surface pores, roughness, material, surface area, porosity, and durability) play a key role in deciding carrier quality. The current study also introduced ‘carrier efficiency limit’, which refers to the carrier's capacity to entrap biomass and immobilize microorganisms. © 2022 Society of Chemical Industry (SCI). Society of Chemical Industry 2023 Article PeerReviewed pdf en http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/1/17%20biocarriers.pdf pdf en http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/7/Experimental%20investigation%20of%20biofilm%20carriers.pdf Al-Amshawee, Sajjad and Mohd Yusri, Mohd Yunus and Alalwan, Hayder A. and Lee, Woo Hyoung and Dai, Fei (2023) Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, 97 (9). pp. 2592-2606. ISSN 1097-4660. (Published) https://doi.org/10.1002/jctb.7131 10.1002/jctb.7131
spellingShingle TP Chemical technology
Al-Amshawee, Sajjad
Mohd Yusri, Mohd Yunus
Alalwan, Hayder A.
Lee, Woo Hyoung
Dai, Fei
Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance
title Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance
title_full Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance
title_fullStr Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance
title_full_unstemmed Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance
title_short Experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance
title_sort experimental investigation of biofilm carriers of varying shapes, sizes, and materials for wastewater treatment in fixed bed biofilm reactor: a qualitative study of biocarrier performance
topic TP Chemical technology
url http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/1/17%20biocarriers.pdf
http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/39964/7/Experimental%20investigation%20of%20biofilm%20carriers.pdf