Improved decontamination performance of biofilm systems using carbon fibers as carriers for microorganisms

Publication date: April 2018 Source:New Carbon Materials, Volume 33, Issue 2 Author(s): Yong-zhen An, Chun-hua Wang, Peng Miao, Xiao-xu Wang, Jie-ying Liang, Jie Liu Biofilm carriers and effective microorganisms (EMs) are both important to improve the decontamination performance of biofilms for wastewater. The decontamination performance of biofilms using polyester (PET), polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), carbon fibers (CFs) and electrochemically-treated CFs as biofilm carriers for EMs were investigated by comparing the concentrations of the chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) of wastewater at different stages of decontamination. The use of all carriers efficiently prevents the loss of mobile EMs. The use of CFs increases the decontamination efficiency. Electrochemically-treated CFs perform best, and the corresponding biofilm has a strong resistivity to the surrounding environment and achieves 97.1%, 92.5% and 96.0% removal rates for COD, TN and TP, respectively, which are 5%–67% higher than those obtained using PET and PVA as carriers.
Source: New Carbon Materials - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research