Pharmaceutical wastewater treatment using an airlift membrane bioreactor containing acetaminophen

In this research removal of acetaminophen from a model pharmaceutical wastewater has been studied. The biodegradability of acetaminophen up to 1000 ppm has been studied at first in flask scale using an activated sludge obtained from Temad Company as inoculation. The flasks were incubated for 48 hours in 25° C and mixing rate of 150 rpm. The flasks were sampled each 12 hours. After 48 hours acetaminophen has been removed completely. In the second step the same experiments were carried out in an external loop airlift membrane bioreactor (7 liter in volume). For aeration a ceramic sparger with an air flow rate of 2 liter/min was used. Acetaminophen has removed completely after 24 hours in the bioreactor. In addition, gas holdup has been studied in the bioreactor as the important hydrodynamics parameter. Correlations have been obtained relating gas holdup to the riser superficial gas velocity of the model pharmaceutical wastewater containing acetaminophen which satisfactorily predict our experimental data.

کلیدواژه ها:

Pharmaceutical wastewater ، acetaminophen ، gas holdup ، airlift membrane bioreactor