Abstract
Modelling the fate of micropollutants in different wastewater treatment processes is of present concern. Moreover, during the last few years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of hybrid reactors which contain both suspended biomass and biofilm. Here, a new model developed which tries to determine the fate of micropollutants in hybrid reactors such as moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) and called the ASM-biofilm-MPs model considered the main mechanisms leading to the micropollutant removal (sorption/desorption, biodegradation, cometabolism) in hybrid reactors. This dynamic model describes the fate of micropollutants in a hybrid reactor using first-order kinetics for biotransformation and sorption/desorption equations. Also, it considered the reactions for carbon oxidation, nitrification, and denitrification in attached and suspended biomass under aerobic conditions. The mathematical model consists of three connected models for the simulation of micropollutants, suspended biomass, and biofilm. Biochemical conversions are evaluated according to the Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) for both attached and suspended biomass. The model is applied for a laboratory MBBR, which fed with synthetic wastewater containing 4-nonylphenol (4-NP) as micropollutant, and accurately describes the experimental concentrations of COD, attached and suspended biomass, nitrogen, and 4-NP micropollutant obtained during 180 days working at different loadings. The differences between simulations and experiments in all operational periods for sCOD, NH4–N, NO3–N, and attached and suspended biomass concentrations were less than 15%, 10%, 10%, 5% and 5%, respectively. Finally, the contribution of adsorption and biodegradation mechanisms in the fate of 4-NP was calculated, when 4-NP concentration is set to 1 µg/L (biodegradation = 86.5%, sorption = 5%) and 50 µg/L (biodegradation = 55.9%, sorption = 34.7%).
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Data availability
All data analyzed during this study are included in this published article, and the datasets used during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- ASMs:
-
Activated sludge models
- COD:
-
Chemical oxygen demand
- DLLME:
-
Dispersive liquid–liquid microextraction
- EDCs:
-
Endocrine disrupting compounds
- HRT:
-
Hydraulic retention time
- GC–MS:
-
Gas chromatography that was equipped with a mass spectrometer
- IWA:
-
International Water Association
- K1, K2 … K22:
-
Process rate
- MBBR:
-
Moving bed biofilm reactor
- MLSS:
-
Mixed-liquor suspended solids
- MLVSS:
-
Mixed-liquor volatile suspended solids
- MPs:
-
Micropollutants
- NH4–N:
-
Ammonium nitrogen
- NO3–N:
-
Nitrate nitrogen
- NP:
-
Nonylphenol
- O.P.1, 2, and 3:
-
Operational period 1, operational period 2, operational period 3
- PAHs:
-
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
- Q :
-
Flow rate
- rbCOD:
-
Rapidly biodegradable COD
- sCOD:
-
Soluble COD
- SRT:
-
Sludge retention time
- TCOD:
-
Total COD
- TN:
-
Total nitrogen
- TP:
-
Total phosphorous
- TSS:
-
Total suspended solids
- VSS:
-
Volatile suspended solids
- VOCs:
-
Volatile organic compounds
- WWTP:
-
Wastewater treatment plant
- C i ,in :
-
Influent concentration for variable i, mg L−1
- C i ,out :
-
Effluent concentration for variable i, mg L−1
- C S :
-
Micropollutant mass/dry solids mass, mg kgdays−1
- r i(t):
-
Concentration variation for variable i based on reactions, g m−3 d−1
- t :
-
Time, days
- V R :
-
Reactor volume, m3
- S I :
-
Soluble inert organic matter, mg COD L−1
- S MP :
-
Micropollutant concentration in liquid phase, µg L−1
- S ND :
-
Soluble biodegradable organic nitrogen, mg N L−1
- S NH :
-
Ammonium nitrogen, mg N L−1
- S NO :
-
Nitrate nitrogen, mg N L−1
- S o :
-
Dissolved oxygen, mg O2 L−1
- S O ,sat :
-
Oxygen saturation concentration, mg O2 L−1
- S S :
-
Rapidly biodegradable organic matter, mg COD L−1
- X B ,A,S :
-
Autotrophic suspended biomass, mg COD L−1
- X B ,A,at :
-
Autotrophic attached biomass, mg COD L−1
- X b ,Detachment,A :
-
Detached attached Aut. from biofilm, mg COD L−1
- X b ,Detachment,H :
-
Detached attached Het. from biofilm, mg COD L−1
- X B ,H,S :
-
Heterotrophic suspended biomass, mg COD L−1
- X B ,H,at :
-
Heterotrophic attached biomass, mg COD L−1
- X I :
-
Inert organic matter, mg COD L−1
- X MP :
-
Sorbed micropollutant to biofilm, µg L−1
- X ND :
-
Slowly biodegradable organic nitrogen, mg N L−1
- X S :
-
Slowly biodegradable organic matter, mg COD−1
- X T :
-
Total solids in the rector, g TSS
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This article is based on a research project (Research Project # 198030 and code of ethics IR.MUI.RESEARCH.REC.1398.123) approved in the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS). The authors wish to acknowledge the Vice Chancellorship of Research of IUMS for financial support.
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Farzaneh Mohammadi: Conceptualization, supervision, writing original draft. Bijan Bina: Conceptualization, review, and editing. Somayeh Rahimi: Laboratory experiments. Mahsa Janati: English editor, review, and editing.
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Mohammadi, F., Bina, B., Rahimi, S. et al. Modelling of micropollutant fate in hybrid growth systems: model concepts, Peterson matrix, and application to a lab-scale pilot plant. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 68707–68723 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20668-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20668-2