Performance of a trickling filter for nitrogen and phosphorous removal with synthetic brewery wastewater in trickling filter biofilm

Article Type: Full Length Research Article The aim of this investigation was to confirm a trickling filter filled with gravel as an alternative biological process over conventional high cost treatment process with regard to nutrient reduction from brewery wastewater. Steady state evaluation of the trickling filter aerobic and anaerobic biofilm system for nutrient removal was made. The results obtained reveal that the bioreactor’s average efficiency ranged from 65.46 to 86.59% and from 10.45 to 56.66% for total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP), respectively as the flow rates changed from 900 to 1100 Ld -1 and at influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentration of 1000 mgL -1 . The average influent nitrogen concentration was 36.9 mgL -1 whereas for total phosphorous it was 30.74 mgL -1 . There exist strong correlations between mass loading rate and mass removal rate as suggested by linear regression model. There was only slight variation in the performance of the bioreactor as the COD load changes. The trickling filter achieved nitrogen and phosphorous removal efficiencies of 72.10±18.49 and 74.69±14.14 (mean±SD), respectively at the design COD load and flow rate of 1648 mgL -1 and 1100 Ld -1 . At the steady state biofilm state, the trickling filter achieved a total nitrogen and total phosphorous removal efficiency of 88 and 80%, respectively for average influent nitrogen and phosphorous concentration of nearly 39.63 and 11 mgL -1 . At this steady state biofilm state, the performance for ammonium removal was about 98% at influent concentration of 22.54 mgL -1 . From these results, it can be concluded that the nutrient load of brewery wastewater can be handled in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner using the gravelfilled trickling filter. ©2014 BluePen Journals Ltd. All rights reserved