title: Impact of ozonation pre-treatment of oil sands process-affected water on the operational performance of a GAC-fluidized bed biofilm reactor.
abstract: Treatment of oil sands process-affected water (OSPW) using biodegradation has the potential to be an environmentally sound approach for tailings water reclamation. This process is both economical and efficient, however, the recalcitrance of some OSPW constituents, such as naphthenic acids (NAs), require the pre-treatment of raw OSPW to improve its biodegradability. This study evaluated the treatment of OSPW using ozonation followed by fluidized bed biofilm reactor (FBBR) using granular activated carbon (GAC). Different organic and hydraulic loading rates were applied to investigate the performance of the bioreactor over 120 days. It was shown that ozonation improved the adsorption capacity of GAC for OSPW and improved biodegradation by reducing NAs cyclicity. Bioreactor treatment efficiencies were dependent on the organic loading rate (OLR), and to a lesser degree, the hydraulic loading rate (HLR). The combined ozonation, GAC adsorption, and biodegradation process removed 62 % of chemical oxygen demand (COD), 88 % of acid-extractable fraction (AEF) and 99.9 % of NAs under optimized operational conditions. Compared with a planktonic bacterial community in raw and ozonated OSPW, more diverse microbial communities were found in biofilms colonized on the surface of GAC after 120 days, with various carbon degraders found in the bioreactor including Burkholderia multivorans, Polaromonas jejuensis and Roseomonas sp.
authors.affiliation: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2W2, Canada.
authors.forename: Md Shahinoor
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Kerry N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: McPhedran
authors.forename: Zhiya
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Sheng
authors.forename: Yanyan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gamal El-Din
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D018441:Biofilms; D019149:Bioreactors; D061329:Oil and Gas Fields; D010126:Ozone; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D010126:Ozone