Study on COD and nitrogen removal efficiency of domestic sewage by hybrid carrier biofilm reactor

A moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) is a kind of commonly used biological sewage treatment process. A carrier, the core of MBBR, could directly affect the treatment efficiency of MBBR. In this experiment, a hybrid carrier composed of an MBBR carrier and fluidized bed porous carrier was innovatively utilized to treat low-concentration simulated domestic sewage through an MBBR reactor to investigate the effects of different hydraulic retention times (HRT) and different carrier dose ratios on the reactor performance. The results indicated that when the volume ratio of the carrier dosage was 5% : 20% when the reactor HRT was 5 h, the removal rates of ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen (TN) and chemical oxygen demand (COD(Cr)) were optimal, which were 96.5%, 60.9% and 91.5%, respectively. The ammonia nitrogen, total nitrogen and COD(Cr) concentrations of the effluent were 1.04 mg L(−1), 12.20 mg L(−1) and 29.02 mg L(−1), respectively. Furthermore, the total biomass concentration in the hybrid carrier biofilm reactor (HCBR) was 3790.35 mg L(−1), which also reached the highest value. As the experiment progressed, the concentrations of protein, polysaccharide and soluble microbial products (SMP) were reduced to 7.68 mg L(−1), 11.10 mg L(−1) and 18.08 mg L(−1), respectively. This was basically consistent with the results of the three-dimensional fluorescence spectrum. The results showed that the combined-carrier biofilm reactor could reduce the volumetric filling rate, improving the removal capability of organic matter and the denitrification efficiency. This study provided technical support for the composite carrier biofilm wastewater treatment technology, and also had a good prospect of application.