Performance of anaerobic-aerobic MBBR system for treating Fischer-Tropsch-processing wastewater

The objective of this paper is to investigate COD removal efficiency of the Fischer-Tropsch-processing wastewater by applying the anaerobic moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR). The contribution of the anaerobic MBBR to total COD removal efficiency reached 97% at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 31.1g/(L·d). The COD removal efficiency of the anaerobic system had a slight decrease to 88% even though the feed OLR was increased to 39.7g/(L·d), and gradually decreased to 61% when feed OLR was increased to 56.3g/(L·d). The COD removal results in the anaerobic batch experiments of biofilm and sludge showed that the attached biofilm has higher activity than suspended sludge. The anaerobic MBBR system showed a characteristic of steady performance and resistance ability during the operation period.