Rotating Biological Contactors

Dr. Akepati S. Reddy

Associate Professor, Thapar University
Adjunct Scientist, TCIRD
Patiala (PUNJAB) -147 004
 Rotating biological contactor (RBC)
• Series of closely spaced polystyrene/polyvinyl chloride
circular disks on horizontal shaft constitute RBC unit
• Standard RBC unit includes
– 3.5 m dia disks with total disk area of 9300 m2/unit to support
microbial film
– A shaft of 8.23 m length (of this 7.23 m is occupied by disks)
• RBC unit is placed in a 45 m3 capacity tank
– Shaft orientation is either perpendicular to or parallel to the
wastewater flow
• RBC unit is usually provided with an enclosure
– Prevents algal growth
– Discs are protected from sunlight (UV light)
– Prevents heat loss and exposure to cold weather
 RBC
Treatment process (sec. or advanced level)
• Treatment is for BOD removal, or nitrification, or both, or
for pretreatment of higher strength industrial effluent
• Wastewater clarified in primary clarifier or fine screened is
fed to the reactor
• 40% of disc surface is submerged in wastewater
maintained in a 45 m3 tank
• Disk surface is alternatively brought in contact with
wastewater and atmosphere by rotating at 1 to 1.6 rpm
rate either mechanical or pneumatically
• Treatment occurs through bio-sorption of organic matter of
wastewater into bio-film and aerobic biooxidation of the
sorbed matter when bio-film is exposed to atmospheric air
• Bio-film as it thickens and looses its ability to cling to disc
surface due to hydrodynamic shears sloughs off
• Treated effluent needs secondary clarification
 RBC
• A number of RBC units may be operated in series to
form a process train
– Exploit the benefits of staged biological reactor design –
facilitates maintaining different conditions in different stages
– For reliability two or more parallel flow trains are employed
– 2-4 units in series are used for BOD removal
≥ 6 units are used for combined BOD removal & nitrification
– To avoid overloading on initial stages, stepped feed or
tapered systems are opted
– RBC units decrease as one moves to higher stages
• RBC units are of low, medium and high density types
– Low density or standard type units are used for initial stages
– Medium and high density units (11000 and 16,700 m2 area)
are used in the mid and final stages
 RBC
Simple to operate and involves low energy costs
Performance is related to specific surface loading of
BOD and/or NH4-N
– For first stage it is 12-20 g/m2.day of soluble BOD (as total
BOD it is 24-30 g/m2.day)
– For nitrification maximum loading rate is 1.5 g/m2.day
Associated with odor and bio-film sloughing problems
– Occurs when oxygen demand exceeds supply
– Sulfur oxidizing bacteria form tenacious whitish film and
prevent sloughing off
Structural failure of shafts, disks and disk support
systems can occur
– Excessive bio-film growth and sloughing problems cause it
 RBC design considerations
Principal elements of RBC
• Disc material and configuration
– HDPE of different configurations or corrugation patterns
– Corrugation increases available surface area and enhances
structural stability
• Shaft
– Shape is square, round or octagonal
– Steel shafts coated for protection against corrosion of 13-30
mm thickness are used
• Tankage
– Requirement is 0.0049 m3/m2 film area
– Typical side wall depth is 1.5 m
– At 0.08 m3/m2 day hydraulic loading rate HRT is 1.44 hrs
 RBC design considerations
Drive system
– Mechanical or pneumatic drives are used for shaft rotation
– Mechanical drive capacity is 3.7 or 5.6 kW per unit
– Deep plastic cups are attached to the perimeter of the disks
and compressed air is released into the cups for rotation
– Air requirement is 5.3 m3/min for standard density shaft and
7.6 m3/min for high density shaft
Enclosures
– Segmented fiberglass reinforced plastic enclosures are used
 RBC design

First stage RBC disk area is determined by using 12-15

g/m2.day sBOD loading
Disk area of subsequent stages is found by second order
model by Opatken
− 1 + 1 + 4 × 0.00974 × ( As / Q ) × S n −1
Sn =
2 × 0.00974 × ( As / Q)
Sn is soluble BOD concentration in mg/l
As is disk surface area for stage-n (in m2)
Q is flow rate in m3/day
Here sBOD/BOD is taken as
0.5 for secondary clarified effluent
0.5 to 0.75 for primary clarified effluent
 RBC design
For nitrification stages area required is found by using
maximum nitrification rate (rn.max ) as 1.5 g/m2.day
– Applicable if sBOD of wastewater is <10 to 15 mg/l -
otherwise rn.max should be corrected by:
Frx = 1.0 − 0.1× sBOD
Here Frx is fraction of nitrification rate possible
sBOD is soluble BOD loading in g/m2.day