instrumentation

1. Removal of pharmaceuticals and personal care
products from domestic wastewater using rotating
biological contactors
Nouman Dhudra
FA17-CHE-104

2. Introduction
• The natural water cycle has an important purification capacity. However, it
does not eliminate many pollutants of anthropic origin, due to their high
concentration, persistence and solubility in water, several of them remaining
for a long time in the environment. Those that are toxic also endanger the
life of aquatic organisms. In domestic wastewater, a large variety of chemical
substances that were previously not detected due to their low concentration
have been quantified thanks to the development of analytical techniques
making this possible

3. Introduction
• Two pharmaceuticals, carbamazepine (Cbz) and sildenafl citrate (Sil), and a
personal care product—methylparaben (Mp)— which cannot be extracted
from water by using conventional methods.
• To extract these contaminants, we use Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC)

4. Method
• RBC is made up of light weight material such as
polyvinylchloride/polyethylene or polystyrene.
• The material is designed in such a way that as
much as surface available for the biofilm
(Protozoa) to attach.
• RBC rotates at a specified RPM, the bacteria
takes oxygen from the environment, as soon as
the film meets the polluted water it absorbs the
pollutants, in this way we end up with pure
water.

5. Currently
• In United States, rotating biological contactors are being used
for industries which are producing wastewater with high BOD.
The rotating packs of discs (known as the media) are installed in a
tank or trough and rotate between 2-5 revolutions per minute.

6. Have a nice day