Biotower Treatment Of Organic Wastewaters

Abstract

Our Earth seems to be unique among the other known celestial bodies. Comprising over 70% of the Earth’s surface, water is undoubtedly the most precious natural resource that exists on our planet. Trickling filter is a nonsubmerged fixed-film biological reactor (biological aerobic treatment unit) using rock or plastic packing over which wastewater is distributed continuously. Treatment occurs as the liquid flows over the attached biofilm. Trickling filters are used since 100 years for treatment of industrial as well as municipal wastewaters offering an efficient and cost-effective biological wastewater treatment alternative. The project entitled “Biotower treatment of organic wastewaters” aims at determining and analyzing the organic wastewater treatment performance of cross flow plastic media biotower (trickling filter) treatment facility already been constructed in the Nirma University Campus. Introduction covers significance, objective, methodology and scope of the project. Literature review is split into two parts; with the first part covering an overview of wastewater and associated pollutants, various wastewater treatment methods, and microorganisms and their role in pollution control. Second part of literature review focuses on trickling filters that specifically includes microbiology of trickling filters, classification of trickling filters, packings for trickling filters, advantages and disadvantages of trickling filters, problems associated with the operation and maintenance of trickling filters, industries employing trickling filters for their effluent treatment, design criteria and design equations for trickling filters. Further work includes design review of the existing biotower set-up constructed on the Nirma University Campus, details of the experimental set-up for the project, theoretical aspects of trickling filter modeling, results and discussions on the experimental runs conducted on canteen wastewater, synthetic effluent, and phenol treatment in biotower set-up, Germain-Schulze model fitting to the experimental data, conclusions derived from the project work and finally the future scope of the project.