Treatability studies of textile wastewater on an aerobic fluidized bed biofilm reactor (FABR): a case study.

The performance of a pilot scale aerobic fluidized bed biofilm process and chemical coagulation for textile wastewater treatment was studied. In order to enhance biological treatment efficiency of textile wastewater, poly urethane cubes were incorporated as a supporting media for attached growth. Fenton's reagent was used as a coagulant in the present study. The fluidized bed biofilm process was operated at four HRTs (3, 4.5, 6 and 8 hour) and the results showed that the COD removal efficiency increased from 69% to 94% when the HRT increased from 3 to 4.5 and there of the removal efficiency remained constant around 94%, even though using relatively low MLSS concentration and short sludge retention time. COD and TDS removals of 94.2% and 93.3% were achieved by overall combined process (FABR+Coagulation aided Sedimentation). After the treatment there is remarkable decrease in colour in addition to COD and TDS.This combined process was highly competitive in comparison to the other similar combined systems. It was concluded that this combined process was successfully employed and much effectively decreased they COD, TDS and color of textile wastewater treatment at pilot scale.