Activity of Biomass in RBC System Treating Pulp Industrial Wastewater

Abstract

The activity of biomass in a longitudinal laboratory‐scale rotating biological contactor (RBC) system used for the treatment of evaporator condensate from a sulfite pulping process was determined by chemical parameters (TKN:SS and VSS:SS) and biological kinetic parameters (the rate of endogenous respiration, the maximum specific respiration rate, etc.) carried out in Warburg experiments. The results show that kinetic parameters are more effective in describing the activity of the biomass, both on the disks and in the basin of the RBC, than chemical parameters. The biomass on the disks at the transition phase of carbonaceous removal to beginning of nitrification has a high activity, which is comparable to that of activated sludge with high F/M ratio of 0.9 kg ${\mathrm{BOD}}_5/\mathrm{kg}$ MLSS/day. The biomass suspended in the basin of the RBC has only about one‐tenth of the metabolic activity of the disk biomass.