Abstract
A new technology for advanced wastewater treatment was developed using a modified Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) process, named as Rotating Activated Bacillus Contactor (RABC) process that utilizes Bacillus sp., the facultatively anaerobic or activated microaerophilic bacteria on multiple-stage reticular rotating carriers, as a predominant species. The RABC process for a municipal wastewater with relatively low concentrations of organics, nitrogen, and phosphorus showed stable and high removal efficiencies, less than $BOD_5$ 10 mg/L, T-N 15 mg/L, and T-P 1.5 mg/L in final effluent. The performance load of RABC process was shown to be $1.23kg{\cdot}BOD/m^2{\cdot}day$ for the first stage (average $0.31kg{\cdot}BOD/m^2{\cdot}day$ for the total stages) based on both removed BOD and converted disc area corresponding to the reticular one. The sludge produced in the RABC process is characterized by low generation rate (about $0.18kg{\cdot}MLSS/kg{\cdot}BOD$) and excellent settleability. The number ratio of Bacillus ($2.4{\times}10^6CFU/ml$) to heterotrophic bacteria ($3.6{\times}10^7CFU/ml$) inhabiting in the biofilms of the RABC process was 6.7 %, indicating that Bacillus sp. was a predominant species in the biofilms. The RABC process with reticular rotating carriers showed its excellent performance for the advanced wastewater treatment without any offensive odor problem due to organic overloading.
