title: Treatment of oilfield wastewater in moving bed biofilm reactors using a novel suspended ceramic biocarrier.
abstract: In this study, a novel suspended ceramic carrier was prepared, which has high strength, optimum density (close to water), and high porosity. Two different carriers, unmodified and sepiolite-modified suspended ceramic carriers were used to feed two moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs) with a filling fraction of 50% to treat oilfield produced water. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) was varied from 36 to 10h. The results, during a monitoring period of 190 days, showed that removal efficiency of chemical oxygen demand was the highest in reactor 3 filled with the sepiolite-modified carriers, followed by reactor 2 filled with the unmodified carriers, with the lowest in reactor 1 (activated sludge reactor), at an HRT of 10h. Similar trends were found in the removal efficiencies of ammonia nitrogen and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Reactor 3 was more shock resistant than reactors 2 and 1. The results indicate that the suspended ceramic carrier is an excellent MBBR carrier.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Beijing 102249, China. bluemanner@163.com
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Mang
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Wenhui
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Xiaochun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*; D018533:Biomass; D019149:Bioreactors; D002516:Ceramics / Q000737:chemistry*; D002681:China; D017633:Magnesium Silicates / Q000737:chemistry; D010578:Petroleum; D013535:Suspensions; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D017633:Magnesium Silicates; D010578:Petroleum; D013535:Suspensions; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C001671:magnesium trisilicate