The effect of organic loadings on the performance of rotating biological contactors

It has become a mere fact that the ever expanding growth of the population and the development of technology in our societies are causing damaging pollution problems in our natural waters. Biological treatment processes have become a major technology for wastewater treatment whether municipal or industrial. The Rotating Biological Contactors (RBC's) Process is a relatively new biological wastewater treatment process compared to other biological treatment processes, such as activated sludge and trickling filters. Although the biological mechanisms for wastewater treatment for RBC's and activated sludge are the same, there are some differences relative to fixed bed growth versus fluidized bed growth systems. The performance of RBC's is affected by a number of design parameters such as flow rate, rotational speed, detention time, temperature of wastewater, disc surface area, submerged disc depth, and organic loading. The work presented here gives a description, analysis and discussion of the effect of organic loading which is a paramount parameter of the performance of RBC's. The study shows the tremendous effect of organic loading on the performance of RBC's, through experimental as well as analytical techniques. It also correlates the performance at each stage of the process to the organic loading which is a major design factor for the manufacturing system of RBC's.