First full-scale combined MBBR, coagulation, flocculation, discfilter plant with phosphorus removal in France

The suspended solids (SS) concentrations in effluent from moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs) used for secondary biological treatment can be up to 500 mg/L. Microscreens (Drumfilters or Discfilters) can be used as alternatives to traditional clarification or dissolved air flotation to remove SS and total phosphorus (TP). This study shows how a small-scale municipal WWTP for 5,700 population equivalent (PE) can be upgraded to 12,000 PE by combining MBBR with coagulation-flocculation tanks and a Discfilter with a total footprint of 160 m(2). This long-term investigation demonstrated that even though influent turbidity (range 146-431 NTU) and flow (25-125 m(3)/h) varied considerably, very low effluent turbidities (below 10 NTU) could be achieved continuously. Furthermore, this compact treatment system can provide average reductions of ammonium (NH4-N) from 19 to 0.04 mg/L, COD from 290 to 10 mg/L, and TP from 4.5 to 0.3 mg/L. The results show that effluent requirements can be reached by combining MBBR, coagulation-flocculation and disc filtration at full scale, without a primary clarifier upstream of MBBR.