Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor Performance in Phenol Removal from Wastewater

Background: Phenolic compounds are found in wastewater of many industries such as pulp and paper, textile, petrochemical, oil refineries, production of phenolic resins, plastics, coal furnace, tannery, rubber reclamation plant, fertilizers, coke, paints, rubber, decolorizer, resins, rubber and phenol- formaldehyde resin industries. This study aimed to evaluate Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) performance in phenol removal from wastewater. Methods: The MBBR with Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) of six hours was operated for 105 days. The effect of phenol concentration (0-500 Mg/L) on the MBBR performance was assessed in three phases of 0-100, 100-300 and 300-500 Mg/L phenol concentration. Results: In this study, at phenol concentration of 100 Mg/L, phenol and COD removal efficiencies were 95.5-97% and 94%, respectively. The removal efficiencies for phenol concentrations of 300 Mg/L and 500 Mg/L were 94.5-96.5% and 92-94.5%, respectively. Conclusion: Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) is a promising method for phenol removal from wastewater.