Department of Civil Engineering Presents Student Scholar Talk Series "Treatment of domestic sewage using a moving bed hybrid bioreactor"

As a part of the newly commenced Student Scholar Talk Series, the Department of Civil Engineering invites you for a research presentation by Mr. Vikalp Saxena (Ph.D. student, Civil Engineering; Ph.D. Advisor: Dr. Susant Kumar Padhi) on 24 February 2022 from 12:30 PM to 01:30 PM (IST). The title of the presentation is “Treatment of domestic sewage and leachate using a moving bed hybrid bioreactor”

The treatment of domestic sewage using a moving bed hybrid bioreactor (MBHBR) was investigated by varying the concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD) (156±14-1141±78 mg/L), ammonia (NH3-N) (2±0.08-48.24±0.93 mg/L), phosphorus (PO4-P) (97±3.2-281±2.65 mg/L), and hydraulic retention times (HRTs). Initially, the reactor was operated at start-up mode (COD: 156±14 mg/L), and gradually the COD concentrations were increased from phase-I (257±24 mg/L) to phase-V (1141±78 mg/L) by reducing the HRTs from 48 to 3 h. A significant improvement in COD removal, maximum up to 96%, was observed at a concentration of 858±51 mg/L (phase-IV), then a sudden drop up to 81% was observed at a higher concentration of 1141±78 mg/L (phase-V). Due to the increase in COD concentrations, average NH3-N removal was dropped from 85 to 32% from phase-I to Phase-V, respectively. In addition, the stability of MBHBR was studied to understand its performance in shutdown and shock loading phases. The co-treatment of sewage and leachate was also performed in MBHBR (COD: 864-881 mg/L and HRT: 6 h), which showed a COD removal of 77-80% and NH3-N removal of 60-94%. Proteobacteria was identified as a predominant species in MBHBR, which played a significant role in the co-treatment of sewage and leachate. The maximum biodegradation rate (rmax) and half-saturation constant (Ks) were estimated as 13.3 mg/L h and 361.8 mg/L, respectively.