A Review On Packed Bed Removal of Organic Matter From Wastewater
A Review On Packed Bed Removal of Organic Matter From Wastewater
A Review On Packed Bed Removal of Organic Matter From Wastewater
ABSTRACT
Packed bed reactor finds wide application in wastewater treatments. Packed bed reactors can be employed for
aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment of wastewater. They can also be used for physico-chemical treatments
such as activated carbon adsorption of various pollutants from wastewater. Packed beds with up flow and down flow
mechanisms are widely used for wastewater treatment. Use of fluidized bed offers some advantages such as better
contact and better distribution of material. Removal of organic matter from the effluent is major objective behind
most of the treatment processes. Packed bed and fluidized bed reactors can be used efficiently for organic matter
removal. The present review summarizes the packed and fluidized treatment of the wastewater for removal of
organic matter.
Keywords: Adsorbent, organic matter, break through curve, saturation, hydraulic retention time.
IJSRSET152210 | Received: 28 Feb 2015 | Accepted: 5 March 2015 | March-April 2015 [(1)2: 27-30] 27
hybrid reactors. According to them, if fluidization period and DP in the above-mentioned ranges for reactors were
can be set properly, hybrid conditions can provide maintained. In both reactors, COD removal efficiencies
equivalent efficiencies to fluidized case. When influent of 80 percent were obtained. They concluded that the pH
COD concentrations were increased to 1,000 and 2,000 of the effluents obtained and COD removal efficiency
mg/L, the efficiencies of each reactor configurations were not significantly affected by OLR, FL and DP. In
were negatively affected. They obtained overall removal second set of their experiments the values of pH
efficiency of 49% for fixed beds. 60-min fluidized bed throughout the operation time remained within the
plus 300-min fixed-bed operations indicated highest optimum range for methanogenic bacteria. Rao et.al.
removal of 84 percent. used laboratory scale fluidized bed bioreactor for
studying the Removal of COD[27]. In their work, they
Bhuyar carried out research on an up flow anaerobic acclimatized the bed material with organic feed for
packed bed reactor for treatment of domestic about a week. They observed increase in COD removal
wastewater[22]. They performed experiments with with increase in operating time. Also, with an increase in
hydraulic retention times of 1, 2 and 3 days based on COD values of stock solutions, the reactor got stabilized
empty reactor volume. They obtained average COD and maximum percentage removal of COD was
removal of 75 percent for three days hydraulic retention achieved within lesser period. Removal of dyes in fixed
time(HRT). After one day HRT, there was no increase in bed micro column was tried by Qada et.al[28]. The used
COD removal. So 1 day was sufficient retention time for activated carbon as bed material. With increase in initial
COD removal. In their investigation, Naghizadeh et.al. dye concentration, the slope of the breakthrough curve
used continuous adsorption experiments to study increased and became much steeper. Also it was
efficiency of the carbon nanotubes (CNTs) for removal observed that the equilibrium capacity and adsorption
of natural organic matters (NOMs) from aqueous rate increased with the decrease in the adsorbent particle
solution[23]. The break through period was found to be size. Nikolaeva et.al. treated dairy wastewater treatment
longer at lower initial NOMs concentration. multi wall by anaerobic fixed bed reactors[29]. Fixed bed reactor
carbonnanotubes (MWCNT) and single wall carbon was packed with a hybrid material composed of waste
nanotubes (SWCNT) exhibited 53.46 and 66.24 mg/g tyre rubber and zeolite.They observed that an increase in
adsorption capacity respectively. They also observed the hydraulic retention time(HRT) brought about an
that breakthrough time occurs very late and the volume improvement in the effluent quality. Maximum 82.1
of treated water increased. Dwaraka and Jaya employed percent removal was achieved for HRT of 5.5 days.
immobilized fixed bed anaerobic digester for domestic They were able to reduce the volume of the reactor five
waste treatment[24]. They used mixed vegetable waste times as compared to conventional digesters without
as a nutrient for the development of micro organisms. affecting the organic matter removal efficiency. Packed
The reactor attained steady state after four weeks with bed treatment for organic matter in distillery effluent
an average COD removal of 80% to 90%. With influent was carried out by Amale et.al.[30].They used wood
COD concentration of 226mg/l, more than 80 percent charcoal as an adsorbent in a fixed bed for removal of
COD removal was achieved. Semifluidized bed organic matter from effluent. They observed that there
bioreactor was used for the treatment of palm oil mill was decrease in exhaustion time with initial
effluent (POME) by Alade et.al[25]. According to their concentration. With increase in bed height, the
studies, conventional reactor systems were not efficient. exhaustion time delayed. Kulkarni presented a review
Semifluidized bed method, according to them was on modelling of packed beds for wastewater
highly efficient treatment method. treatment[31]. According to the review various models
like Thomas model, Yoon Nelson model and Modified
An anaerobic fluidized bed reactor with natural zeolite Dose model are used for describing breakthrough curves.
as support material was used to treat distillery effluent These models were mostly successful in describing the
by Fernandez et.al.[26]. In the first set of experiments, breakthrough curves. According to him the modelling
they evaluated the influences of the organic loading rate was very important and helpful tool in the adsorption
(OLR), the fluidization level (FL) and the particle studies and adsorber design as it saves time and effort.
diameter of the natural zeolite (DP). In the second set,
OLR from 3 to 20 g COD/ld with 25% of fluidization