Polyhydroxyalkanoate Pellets as Novel Immobilization Medium for Phenol Biodegradation by Activated Sludge

Abstract:

Biofilm enhances the performances of biological wastewater treatment systems. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of using biodegradable polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) pellets as novel biofilm carrier for phenol biodegradation. Two identical laboratory-scale reactors were operated with fill, react, settle, draw and idle periods in the ratio of 2:12:2:1:7 for a 24-h cycle. One reactor was supplemented with 2% (v/v) of PHA pellet and operated as sequencing batch biofilm reactor (SBBR), whereas the other reactor was operated as sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and used as the control reactor. The performances of SBBR and SBR in degrading phenol were studied at three phases with the introduction of 300, 500 and 1000 mg L^-1 phenol, respectively. The removal of phenol was found best described using zero-order kinetics, with R² > 0.97. At all phases, the phenol removal rate during react period for SBBR (7.30 ± 0.55 to 9.33 ± 1.06 mg L^-1 min^-1) was found higher compared to those for SBR (4.28 ± 0.66 to 8.35 ± 0.68 mg L^-1 min^-1), with significance difference observed at low phenol concentration. Whereas for chemical oxygen demand biodegradation kinetics, SBRR exhibited significantly higher rate compared to SBR at all phases. From the scanning electron microscopy image, the attachment of activated sludge onto PHA pellet was observed. The results indicated the potential of PHA serving as alternative biofilm carrier in biofilm process.

• Periodical: Key Engineering Materials (Volume 920)
• Pages: 51-56
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/p-4t2207
• Online since: May 2022
• Authors: Nurul Hidayatul Ulya binti Muhd Aidil, Jia Yun Chang, Nadia Natasha binti Roslan, Kumar Sudesh, Si Ling Ng*
• Keywords: Activated Sludge, Biodegradation Kinetics, Immobilization, Phenol, Polyhydroxyalkanoate

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