Treatment of a petrochemical wastewater in sequencing batch reactors

Abstract

Abstract The response of sequencing batch reactors (SRB's) in an industrial application was investigated. Four bench‐scale SBR's and a bench‐scale conventional activated sludge unit were operated with wastewater from a petrochemical complex. In terms of the degradation of BOD material and nitrification, the performance of the SBR's was comparable or slightly superior to that of the conventional activated sludge unit. However, for high strength wastes with BOD 5 > 300 mg/l and under organic shock loading conditions, effluent from an SBR may have a high solids content as a result of abundant dispersed‐cells growth. The SBR reacted well to a series of phenolic shock loadings; phenols were degraded from initial concentrations ranging from 200 to 950 mg/l to <0.1 mg/l. A model of the SBR, which incorporated the Monod kinetics, was presented as a design aid.