Abstract
A packed bed type contactor of biological activated carbon was installed to improve performance of submerged biofilter process (SBP). The packed bed type contactor was submerged into the aerobic tank. Performance of a mesh vinyl chloride contactor was also tested to estimate the effect of using the packed bed type contactor. The experiments were carried out under high DO (more than 3.5 mg/L) and low DO (less than 1.5 mg/L) conditions. Rates of nitrification, denitrification and BOD removal were increased by replacing the mesh contactor with the packed bed type contactor. In particular, the effect of using the packed bed type contactor was large under the high DO condition. The reason of the increase of reaction rates could be due to the increase of specific activities of attached growth. The activities of bacteria being attached to the activated carbon was about three times of that to the mesh contactor. In addition, problem with clogging of the packed bed was not observed during the experiment. These results indicate that improvement of performance of the SBP by using the packed bed type contactor of biological activated carbon is possible.
