title: Investigation of furfural biodegradation in a continuous inflow cyclic biological reactor.
abstract: The performance of a continuous inflow cyclic biological reactor (CBR) containing moving media was investigated for the degradation of high concentrations of furfural. The effects of hydraulic retention time (HRT) and furfural initial concentrations (loading rate), as main operating parameters, on the bioreactor performance were studied. The results indicated that the CBR could remove over 98% of furfural and 71% of its chemical oxygen demand (COD) at inlet furfural concentrations up to 1,200 mg L(-1) (2.38 g L(-1) d(-1)), a 6-h cycle time and HRT of 12.1 h. The removal efficiency decreased slightly from 98 to 94% when HRT decreased from 12.1 to 10.5 h. The average removal efficiency of furfural and COD during the 345-day operational period under steady-state conditions were 97.7% and 82.1%, respectively. The efficiency also increased approximately 17.2% after addition of synthetic polyurethane cubes as moving media at a filling ratio of 10%.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Engineering, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Jalale-Ale Ahmad Avenue, P. O. Box 14115-331, Tehran, Iran E-mail: moussavi@modares.ac.ir.
authors.forename: Gholamreza
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moussavi
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Shahid Fahmideh Avenue, P. O. Box 65175-417, Hamadan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mostafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Leili
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Health Engineering, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Poursina Avenue, Qods Street, Enqelab Square, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Kazem
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nadafi
mesh_terms: D001673:Biodegradation, Environmental; D057919:Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; D019149:Bioreactors; D005662:Furaldehyde / Q000378:metabolism*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D005662:Furaldehyde