Kinetic modeling of carbon and nutrients removal in an integrated rotating biological contactor-activated sludge system

In this study, kinetics of biological carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous removal from a synthetic wastewater in an integrated rotating biological contactor-activated sludge system was investigated. The experimental data obtained from varying four significant independent factors viz., hydraulic retention time, chemical oxygen demand for nitrogen to phosphorus ratio, internal recirculation from aerobic to anoxic zone and disks rotating speed were used for the process kinetic modeling. In order to obtain the bioprocess kinetic coefficients, Monod, first-order and Stover–Kincannon models were employed. As a result, Monod and Stover–Kincannon models were found to be the appropriate models to describe the bioprocess in the rotating biological contactor-activated sludge system as the determination coefficient for the first-order model obtained less than 0.79. According to the Monod model, growth yield, microbial decay rate, maximum specific biomass growth rate, and half-velocity constant coefficients were found to be 0.712 g VSS/g COD, 0.008/d, 5.54/d and 55 mg COD/L, respectively. From Stover–Kincannon model, the maximum total substrate removal rate constant and half-velocity constant were determined as 15.2, 10.98, 12.05 g/L d and 14.78, 7.11, 6.97 mg/L for chemical oxygen demand, nitrogen and phosphorus removal, respectively. The kinetic parameters determined in this study can be used to improve the design and operation of the biological contactor-activated sludge system in full scale