چكيده به لاتين
In the past few years, pharmaceutical pollutants in aquatic environments have received attention for the threats they cause to human health and the ecosystem. Therefore, effective treatment of wastewater contaminated with pharmaceuticals has become more important as one of the main sources of the release of these pollutants into the environment. This research investigates the effectiveness of a Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) containing sponge carriers in removing the Ibuprofen drug from the real wastewater of the Tehran Southern wastewater treatment plant.
An MBBR with a working volume of 30 liters was selected. In continuous operating conditions, the reactor’s performance under various parameters, including Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT) (5,10, and 15 hours), filling ratio (10%, 20%, and 30%), and entrance Ibuprofen concentration (2,5, and 10mg/l) was evaluated. The results showed that the reactor has excellent efficiency in removing both COD and Ibuprofen. The COD removal efficiency was in the range of 48% to96.1%; and the highest removal rate was obtained under the conditions of 15 hours HRT, 10% filling ratio, and 5mg/l entrance Ibuprofen concentration. The Ibuprofen removal efficiency was in the range of 25% to87.8%; and the highest removal rate was under the conditions of 10 hours HRT, 20% filling ratio, and 5mg/l Ibuprofen entrance concentration. In this study, due to the higher efficiency of Ibuprofen removal in the 10 hours HRT, and the slight difference of COD removal efficiency in the 10 and 15 hours HRT, for the increase of treatment capacity, HRT=10 hours can be chosen as the optimal HRT. The filling ratio does not significantly affect COD removal; however, a 20% filling ratio was obtained as the optimal amount for Ibuprofen removal. By increasing the entrance Ibuprofen concentration from 2mg/l to 5mg/l, the performance of the reactor improved in removing COD and Ibuprofen, but it decreases when the entrance Ibuprofen concentration increased from 5mg/l to 10mg/l.
