Comparison of various types of biomedia in river water treatment using attached growth activated sludge process

ABSTRACT

Purification and beautification projects of river water in Malaysia involve biological treatment to remove pollutants. Activated sludge processes application on river water treatment proved successful performance. Attached growth system with biomedia increases biomass concentration and rates of contaminant degradation. In this work, several attached growth biological reactors were operated in parallel to treat river water in laboratory-scale experiment. Seven biological reactors were filled with different types of plastic biomedia, one was filled with assorted gravel and one left blank as a control. Monitoring of reactors’ performance was carried out to evaluate their performance. Parameters were tested throughout the steady-state period after acclimatization. The results were used to compute the Malaysian water quality index. The targeted removal efficiency was to achieve Class II in the National Water Quality Standard for Malaysian River and Lake Water quality, which was not attained. The treated effluent from the reactors ranged between Class III and IV.

Keywords:

• River water treatment
• water quality index
• biomedia
• activated sludge

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Universiti Tenaga Nasional (UNITEN) and the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Malaysia for their support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.