Methods of reconstruction and modification of the sequencing batch reactor at municipal wastewater treatment plants in Vietnam

Introduction. Vietnamese urban municipal wastewater treatment plants are mainly of aeration-type facilities. Nowadays, an aeration-type plant, the Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR), is widely applied and possesses a number of advantages over traditional systems with suspended activated sludge. Advantages of the SBR are mainly concluded in simplicity of operation, occupied area and cost. There is a number of problems at the wastewater treatment plants; they are connected with supplying only a half of wastewater design amount for the treatment as well as with quality of the purified water that must satisfy requirements of the Vietnamese discharge standard, the Standard A. Therefore, reconstruction and modification of the SBR is the major challenger to ensure the sustained development of large Vietnamese cities and maintenance of ecological balance. Materials and methods. To enhance the efficiency of wastewater purification in the SBR, the experiments were set on reactor reconstruction and modification by two directions: (1) Technological method, i.e. applying the Biochip 25 biocarrier, and (2) Operation method, i.e. adding the anoxic phase in reactor operation cycle. Laboratory tests were conducted for each of the directions, including comparison of a typical reactor with the modified one. Results. The study resulted in obtaining an optimal amount of the BioChip biocarrier material (10 to 20 %) that increased efficiency of wastewater purification by 10 to 20 %. In addition to this, when creating an anoxic phase of the operation cycle, efficiency of nitrogen removal increased by 20 %. When the denitrification occurs under the anoxic conditions, it contributes to stabilization of ammonium nitrogen removal for daily nitrogen loading in reactor of 0.3 to 0.8 TKN kg/sludge kg. Conclusions. The suggested technology provides the quality of treated water corresponding with the Vietnamese Standard A requirements. At the present, it is planned to proceed with the experiment on the base of Vietnamese semi-industrial plant for research and appraisal of the SBR reconstruction and modification method. Acknowledgements. The authors are grateful to AKVA Control company in Samara for granted biocarrier Mutag BioChip 25 and to Associate Professor Tran Van Quang and his students, Nguyen Ngoc Phuong and Truong Quoc Dai, of Environment Protect Research Center, Danang University for support of the experiment.