Eliminación sostenible de microcontaminantes de efluentes de EDAR municipales con MBBR. Resultados de estudios de laboratorio y piloto

Wastewater treatment plants based on conventional activated sludge systems (CAS) cannot eliminate many of the organic micropollutants, including most pharmaceutical products. Moving bed biological reactors (MBBR) have demonstrated greater efficiency in the elimination of various pharmaceutical products compared to CAS.

In this study, a biological solution based on MBBR technology (eXeno from Veolia Water Technologies) is presented as a tertiary treatment for the elimination of pharmaceutical products and other pollutants. To ensure sufficient biomass growth, a two-stage MBBR reactor is fed alternately with a small fraction of high load wastewater (carbon and nitrogen).

The degradation rate constants for the elimination of pharmaceutical products were significantly higher compared to other studies conducted with activated sludge and other traditional processes of suspended biomass in laboratory and pilot studies.