Degradation Profile of Phenol in Sequential Batch Reactor

Compact well settling granules were cultivated for degrading 3.9 kg m -3 d -1 of phenols. Formed granules were studied qualitatively using SEM and it was found that a large number of bacterial types including bacterial rod, cocci, diatoms are dispersed in the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS). Degradation studies show that initially the removal rate of phenol was fast but later on it becomes slow. Low concentration of 50 mg l -1 , 100 mg l -1 , 200 mg l -1 phenol comes down below detection limit in about 170 min of the SBR cycle but high concentration of 400 mg l -1 , 650 mg l -1 took around 240 min for complete removal. This study demonstrates the utilization of aerobic granulation for treating high concentration of phenol and other xenobiotics.