Suitability of SBR for Wastewater Treatment and Reuse: Pilot-Scale Reactor Operated in Different Anoxic Conditions

Abstract

The present study investigates the performance of a pilot-scale Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) process for the treatment of wastewater quality parameters, including turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), total solids (TS), nitrogen (ammonia (NH ₃–N), nitrite (NO ₂ ⁻), and nitrate (NO ₃ ⁻), phosphate (PO ₄ ³⁻), the chemical oxygen demand (COD), and the 5-day biological oxygen demand (BOD ₅), from municipal wastewater. Two scenarios, namely, pre-anoxic denitrification and post-anoxic denitrification, were investigated to examine the performance of a pilot-scale SBR on the wastewater quality parameters, particularly the nitrogen removal. The correlation statistic was applied to explain the effects of operational parameters on the performance of the SBR system. The results revealed that the post-anoxic denitrification scenario was more efficient for higher qualify effluent than the first scenario. The effluent concentrations of the targeted wastewater quality parameters obtained for the proposed SBR system were below those of the local standards, while its performance was better than that of the North Sewage Treatment Plant, Dharan, Eastern province, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), in terms of the BOD ₅, COD, TN, and PO ₄ ^3- treatment efficiencies. These results indicated the suitability of SBR technology for wastewater treatment in remote areas in the KSA, with a high potential of reusability for sustainable wastewater management.