Abstract

BOTELLO SUAREZ, Wilmar Alirio; ORTIZ VARON, Juan Camilo  and  PENA PEREA, Sergio Andrés. Microbial immobilization on synthetic polymers for wastewater treatment. Nova [online]. 2016, vol.14, n.26, pp.95-102. ISSN 1794-2470.

Objective. Evaluate the ability of microbial immobilization of several synthetic polymers, and establish its performance during the start-up and operation of a hybrid biological reactor (HBR), applied to domestic wastewater treatment. Methods. For evaluation we selected five polymers: polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutadiene (BD), polyurethane foam (PUF), expanded polystyrene (EPS) and polyethylene (PE). Materials with higher immobilization capacity (expressed as the number of colony forming units contained in one gram of material, CFUg^-1) were added to a HBR, with operational volume of 10,4L, fed with synthetic wastewater. The efficiency of the system was established in terms of removal of organic matter contained in the effluent for 13 days of continuous operation. Results. Polymers showing the high immobilization capacity were: BD (2,2x10⁷ CFUg^-1) and PUF (4,6x10⁷ CFUg^-1). The HBR, subjected to organic loading rate of 2.7 kg COD m^-3d^-1, showed operational stability for the treatments evaluated, reaching a removal of organic matter of 78% and 94%, by using BD and PUF as immobilization supports, respectively.

Keywords : Domestic wastewater; hybrid biological reactor; immobilization supports.

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