Attached Growth Reactor

(Rotating Biological Contactor, RBC)

Dr. Eng. JONI ALDILLA FAJRI

 Concept of RBC

• Is to let wastewater flow through the tank,

and to rotate the medium in the wastewater
to be treated, alternatively exposing the
medium (and the attached biological growth)
to air and the wastewater.
 RBC
• The Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) consists of a
series of closely spaced circular disks that are partly
submerged in wastewater and slowly rotated through it
(typical submergence is 40%).
• Media rotation by mechanical drive or air (1 to 1.6
revolutions per minute).
• Can achieve nitrification if BOD load is sufficiently low
(à staging of RBC units)
• Is used for “package plant” designs
• First installed in Germany in 1960
 Rotating Biological Contactors
• RBCs constructed of plastic media on a long shaft
• Media is submerged in a tank
• Shaft rotates media through water
• Bacteria grow on media, degrade BOD in water
• Bacteria get air by exposure to atmosphere
• Bacteria eventually die, fall off media surface
• Dead bacteria and other solids are removed in the secondary clarifier
• Media up 12 feet in diameter
• Shafts as long as 25 feet

• Media areas up to 180,000 square feet per shaft

 Rotating Biological Contactors
• RBCs constructed of plastic media on a long shaft
• Media is submerged in a tank
• Shaft rotates media through water
• Bacteria grow on media, degrade BOD in water
• Bacteria get air by exposure to atmosphere
• Bacteria eventually die, fall off media surface
• Dead bacteria and other solids are removed in the secondary clarifier
• Media up 12 feet in diameter
• Shafts as long as 25 feet

• Media areas up to 180,000 square feet per shaft

 Rotating Biological Contactors

Primary
Settling

Secondary
Settling
Sludge
Treatment

Sludge Treatment
ADVANTAGES OF RBC PROCESS
Simple Operation
Low Energy Requirements
Nitrification
Few Nuisances
Wide Flow Range
Large Biological Population
 DISADVANTAGES
OF
RBC PROCESS
Limited Controls
Enclosures
Limited Experience and Training
 Can the energy savings of RBCs be quantified?
Designing a plant for 30 mgd, 250 mg/l of BOD (62,000 pounds per day)

RBC
• 0.0023 lbs of BOD per
square foot of disc surface
area.
• motors drawing 3 kW per
100,000 square feet of disc
surface area.
• will need approximately
26,700,000 square feet of
disc surface area.
• approximately 800 kW of
power
ASP
• 1.2 pounds of oxygen per
pound of BOD removed.
• need to generate 75,000
pounds of oxygen per day.
• 1 kWh of power is required
to provide approximately 2
pounds of oxygen.
• This will require 1,500 kW
of power.
• Process total over 1,650 kW
 How do RBCs reduce the cost of other plant
processes?

By the nature of the excess biosolids

• ASP sludge finely divided nature and occasional
problems with filamentous bacteria.
• RBCs, on the other hand, generate larger, more rapidly
settling sludge particles.
• Secondary clarifiers for RBC plants approx. 20% smaller
than for activated sludge plants.
• Difference in solids separation also leads to reduced
operator attention.
• RBC sludge is more concentrated than waste activated
sludge and thickens better.
• Volume reduction of approx. 25%.
• reduces the size of sludge processing facilities, such as
digesters by a similar percentage and can also reduce
operating costs.
How much less land is used by the RBC process
than the activated sludge process?
RBC ASP
• 26,700,000 square feet of • An aeration basin with
RBC media are required. about 8 hours of detention
• A 10 foot by 25 foot tank time is needed.
will contain 100,000 square • For 15 feet deep basin, the
feet of media.
area required is 90,000
• Therefore, 270 RBCs are square feet.
needed, occupying a
surface area of • The blower and control
approximately 98,000 building will typically
square feet, including three occupy approximately
feet on all sides of the tank. 10,000 square feet.
 Can RBCs provide nutrient removal similar to that
provided by activated sludge systems?

• For ammonia conversion to nitrates (nitrification),

more surface area must be provided, just as more
microorganisms (higher sludge age) are required for
activated sludge to nitrify. For nitrogen removal,
submerged RBCs are used following nitrification.
• With regard to phosphorus removal, conventional
biological processes remove phosphorus with excess
cell mass. If further phosphorus removal is required,
the addition of iron or aluminum salts to RBCs is the
way in which phosphorus levels can be reduced to less
than 1 mg/l.
RBC COMPONENTS

CONTACTOR

TANK

CLARIFIER
 RBC COMPONENTS
CONTACTOR

Discs

Shaft
Individual Disc
Media “High Density” Polyethylene

Carbon
Black
Media – Irregular Surface
“Corrugated”
Media – Irregular Surface
“Dimpled”
 Drive Systems - Air
Air Cups

Air
Header
Air Diffusers
Drive Systems - Air
Air Cups

Air Header
RBC Flow Treatment
Drive Systems - Air
Drive Systems - Air
 2 Trains
Influent
5 Stages

1st Stage

Effluent
When a System Has More Than One Train, Each Zone in the System That
Receives the Same Loading is Considered One “Stage”
 STAGING

100
BOD, mg/L
60

39

25

18

Staging Results in Significantly More Efficient

Treatment
 STAGING

This Especially Important for Facilities that are

Required Nitrify Ammonia
INFLUENT RBC Flow Scheme
Primary
Treatment
Rotating
Biological
Pretreatment
Contactors

Disinfection

Secondary
Clarifiers EFFLUENT
Solids Handling
 Factors Design
• Microorganisms and environmental factors
– Microbial growth on a series of thin media (discs, mounted side by
side on a shaft.
– pH range for optimum biological growth 6.5 to 7.8
• Media selection and arrangement
– Specific surface area = 20 to 25 ft2/ft3
– Standard media = 100,000 ft2 shaft (9300 m2)
– High density media = 150,000 ft2 shaft
• Loading and hydraulic parameters
– Organic loading
• Carbon oxidation = 0.5 – 1.0 kg BOD/m3/d
• Nitrification range = 0.16 – 0.24 kg BOD/m3/d
 Factor design Continue…

– Maximum soluble BOD (sBOD5)loading = 0.0244 kg/m2/d

– Over all sBOD5 loading rates = 0.0049 – 0.0146 kg/m2/d
– Nitrification loading rates = 0.0012 – 0.0024 kg/m2/d
– Design Hydraulic loading rates = 0.03 – 0.16 m3/d/m2
– Media surface area for 2nd stage = 0.01 – 0.08 m3/d/m2
• Shaft ; to support and rotate disks
– Max. length = 8.23 m, width = 7.62 m,
• Disk material
• Drive system
– Motor typically rated at 3.7 or 5.6 kW
• Tankage
– Optimized tank = 0.0049 m3/m2
– Stage volume = 45 m3
Kriteria Desain Rotating Biological Contactor
Parameter Unit Level Pengolahan
Sekunder Gabungan Nitrifikasi terpisah
Nitrifikasi
Hydrolic Loading m3/m2.hari 0,08-0,16 0,03-0,08 0,04-0,10
Organic loading:

SBOD5 kg/m2.hari 0,004-0,015 0,0024-0,012 0,005-0,010

TBOD5 kg/m2.hari 0,0098-0,017 0,0073-0,014 0,00098-0,003
Max. Loading:

SBOD5 kg/m2.hari 0,0196-0,029 0,0196-0,029

TBOD5 kg/m2.hari 0,039-0,058 0,039-0,058

NH3 Loading kg/m2.hari 0,00073-0,0014 0,00098-0,0019

HRT Jam 0,7-1,5 1,5-4,0 1,2-2,9

Efluen BOD5 mg/l 15-30 7-15 7-15
Efluen NH3 mg/l <2 <2
RBC for secondary
treatment
Nitrification percentage
 sBOD removal for n-stage

• Ratio sBOD/BOD in secondary clarifier = 0.05

• Ratio sBOD/BOD in primary clarifier = 0.5 to 0.75
 Design calculation
Desain stage dan hydraulic retention time
(HRT) dari kriteria limbah berikut:
1. Number of RBC shaft
Assumsi 1st –stage sBOD = 15 g/m2.d
sBOD loading = 90 g/m3 Χ 4000 m3/d = 360,000 g/d
360,000 𝑔/𝑑
Disk area = = 24,000 m2
15 𝑔/𝑚2.𝑑
24,000 𝑚2
No. of shaft = = 2,6 shaft ≈ 3 shaft.
9300 𝑚2/𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑓𝑡

2. Number of stage and trains

Assumsi; 3 train with 3 stage/train.
4000 𝑚3/𝑑
Flowrate/train = = 1333,3 m3/d
3 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠
3. sBOD concentration in each stage
𝐴
− 1+ 1+ 4 0.00974 𝑄𝑠 𝑆𝑛 1
−
Sn = 𝐴𝑠 ; So = 90 g/m3
2 0.00974
𝑄
𝐴𝑠
= 9300 m2/1333.3 m3/d = 6.97 d/m
𝑄
S1 = 29.8 g/m3
S2 = 14. 8 g/m3
S3 = 9.1 g/m3
4. Organic and hydraulic loading
a. First stage
𝑚3 𝑠𝐵𝑂𝐷
4000 (90 𝑔 3 )
𝑑 𝑚
Lorg= 2 = 12.9 g sBOD/m2.d
3 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 ×9300 𝑚

b. Overall organic loading

3
𝑚 𝐵𝑂𝐷
4000 (140 𝑔 3 )
𝑑 𝑚
Lorg= 2 = 6.7 g BOD/m2.d
3 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 ×3𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑓𝑡/𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 ×9300 𝑚 /𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑓𝑡

c. Hydraulic loading
4000 𝑚3/𝑑
HLR = = 0.05 m3/m2.d
3 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 ×3𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑓𝑡/𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑔𝑒 ×9300 𝑚2/𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑓𝑡
 RBC with nitrification removal
• Sebuah WWTP mengolah limbah dengan debit 8000
m3/d, sBOD < 15 mg/L. The NH3 in influent 25 mg/L
dan target di effluent adalah 2.5 mg/L. Hitung
pengolahan tertiary RBC system.
a. Surface area u/ lower NH3 dr 25 mg/L  5 mg/L
– Flux ammnia-N in biofil = 1.5 g NH3-N/m2.d
– 20 mg/L  loading = 160,000 g N/d.
160,000 g−N/d
As = 2 = 106,700 m2
1.5 𝑔𝑁𝐻3−𝑁/𝑚 .𝑑
2. no. of shaft
surface area per shaft = 13,900 m2
No. of shaft = 106700 m2/ 13900 m2/shaft = 7.7 shaft ≈ 8 shaft. A
= 111,200 m2
3. Loading rate.
sCOD = 15 mg BOD/L x 1.5 = 22.5 g BOD/L (51 g COD/L)
λs = (8000 m3/d x 51 g COD/L )/111200 m2 = 3.67 g COD/m2.day)