Investigating the performance of inverse fluidized bed biofilm reactor for phenol biodegradation using Pseudomonas fluorescence

The feasibility of a three phase inverse fluidized bed biofilm reactor with low density support particles (812 kg/m3) was investigated for the degradation of synthetic phenolic effluent (600 mg/l at 30°C) using indigenous pure culture of Pseudomonas fluorescence. The maximum COD removal of 97.9% occurred with complete degradation of phenol in 110 hours of operation and the biofilm and biomass characteristics of Pseudomonas fluorescence with respect to its suspended and attached biomass concentration, biofilm thickness and bioparticle density were also studied. The culture followed substrate inhibition kinetics. Biodegradation data was correlated with kinetic models including Monod, Yano& Koga, Teissier, Aiba et al, Webb and Haldane model. Experimentally obtained data best fitted with the Haldane model and the kinetic parameters were derived by non linear regression with a correlation factor (R2) of 0.9938. The values of Haldane constants rsmax, Ks and Ki were 0.541 h-1, 0.9211 mg/l and 3.57 mg/l respectively. The bio-kinetic constants estimated using these models showed good potential of using Pseudomonas fluorescence culture in phenol degradation in inverse fluidized bed biofilm reactor.