Biodegradation of benzotriazoles and hydroxy-benzothiazole in wastewater by activated sludge and moving bed biofilm reactor systems

Two laboratory scale fully aerated continuous flow wastewater treatment systems were used to compare the removal of five benzotriazoles and one benzothiazole by suspended and attached growth biomass. The Activated Sludge system was operated under low organic loading conditions. The Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) system consisted of two serially connected reactors filled with K3-biocarriers.

It was either operated under low or high organic loading conditions. Target compounds were removed partially and with different rates in tested systems. For MBBR, increased loading resulted in significantly lower biodegradation for 4 out of 6 examined compounds. Calculation of specific removal rates (normalised to biomass) revealed that attached biomass had higher biodegradation potential for target compounds comparing to suspended biomass.

Clear differences in the biodegradation ability of attached biomass grown in different bioreactors of MBBR systems were also observed. Batch experiments showed that micropollutants biodegradation by both types of biomass is co-metabolic.