Abstract
Virtually no mention is made of backwashing in published research on biofilm modeling. Most of the authors who include it in their models assume that the biofilm has a set thickness after backwashing, although other proposals have also been made. The experimental study described in this article provides experimental data to test or reject the possible validity of these hypotheses. For this purpose, a pilot plant consisting of an aerated filter filled with Biostyr® material was constructed. The experiment consisted of a total of six phases in which three different backwashing frequencies were combined with two levels of intensity. In this way we obtained data regarding the removal of pollutants, the evolution of the reactor weight, and the effect of backwashing frequency and intensity on the removal of captured solids. Likewise, the solids mass balance for a period of operation was also obtained. The results of the study show that the quantity of solids after backwashing in a submerged biological reactor tends to be stable, and that this amount is independent of backwashing frequency or intensity. However, this conclusion is only valid over an extended period of time not in a daliy observation. It was also noted that the variation of backwashing parameters had no significant impact on the performance of the filter with regard to chemical oxygen demand removal.
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