Municipal Wastewater Treatment Using a Packed Bio-tower Approach
Klaus Doelle *
Department of Chemical Engineering, College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), State University of New York (SUNY), One Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
Qian Wang
Division of Environmental Science, College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), State University of New York (SUNY), One Forestry Drive, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The study tested a designed and built pilot scale packed bio-tower system under continuous operation using pre-clarified municipal wastewater. Performance was evaluated by measuring the removal of chemical oxygen demand and nitrogen ammonia.
The pilot scale packed bio-tower system had a diameter of 1209 mm (4 ft.) and a height of 3,962 mm (13 ft.) and contained Bentwood CF-1900 bacteria growth media with a surface area of 6,028.80 ft² (560.09 m²). The municipal residential sewage was fed into a 1,481 l (375 gal.) recirculation reservoir at a temperature of 15°C (59.0°F) and a flow rate between 7,571 l/d (2000 gal/d) and 90,850 l/d (24,000 gal/d) and recirculated through the bio-tower with a fixed recirculation rate of 75.7 l/min (20 gal/min).
The influent COD value reduction achieved is between 63.4% and 84.8%, whereas the COD influent value varied between 87 mg/l and 140 mg/l. The influent NH3-N reduction achieved was between 99.8% and 91.8% whereas the influent NH3-N value was between 28.8 mg/l and 18.6 mg/l at a flow rate between 7571 l/d (2000 gal/d) and 90,850 l/d (24,000 gal/d).
Keywords: Bio-tower, growth media, packing, packed tower, municipal wastewater, wastewater treatment, gray water, chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen.