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Performance evaluation of the integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) for industrial wastewater treatment containing ethylene glycol

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Abstract

Treating the industrial wastewater is one of the most important methods to help the environment around the humans. In this research, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction from a synthetic laboratory-scale integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) system. The IFAS reactor can have a high influence on treating wastewater containing hazardous environmental pollutants from industrial wastewater in various cycle times (CT). The ethylene glycol (EG) with the concentrations of 600, 800, 1200, and 1800 mg/L by CT of 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, and 4 h are considered to obtain the mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS), food-to-microorganism ratio (F/M), organic loading rate (OLR), surface organic loading rate (SLR) and COD reduction parameters. The experimental results showed that the highest EG and COD removal of the IFSA system occurred at the highest CT (CT = 4 h). The results showed that the COD reduction efficiency of the system has an inverse effect on the volume fractions of ethylene glycol. Moreover, the F/M of the system with an EG of 1800 mg/L was about 2.3 kgCOD/KgMLSS. Moreover, the amount of the OLR of IFAS with an EG of 600 mg/L was 5.4 kgCOD/m3d at a cycle time of 2 h. Additionally, the highest amount of SLR and MLSS of the system was obtained in EG of 1800 mg/L, which were about 43.3 gCODm2/d and 4650 mg/L, respectively.

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Abbreviations

CT:

Cycle time

EG:

Ethylene glycol

MBBR:

Moving bed biofilm reactor

MLSS:

Mixed liquor suspended solids

COD:

Chemical oxygen demand

OLR:

Organic loading rate

SLR:

Surface organic loading rate

F/M:

Ratio of food to microorganisms

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Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

    Z. Jangi

  2. Energy and Sustainable Development Research Center, Semnan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Semnan, Iran

    S. Shoeibi

Authors
  1. Z. Jangi
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  2. S. Shoeibi
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Contributions

ZJ contributed to methodology, software, conceptualization, formal analysis and writing—review & editing. SS contributed to software, conceptualization, formal analysis, visualization, supervision, validation, project administration and writing—review & editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to S. Shoeibi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This is an observational study. The research has confirmed that no ethical approval is required.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Editorial responsibility: N.S.El-Gendy.

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Jangi, Z., Shoeibi, S. Performance evaluation of the integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) for industrial wastewater treatment containing ethylene glycol. Int. J. Environ. Sci. Technol. 21, 5491–5498 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05446-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13762-023-05446-y

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