Design and Operation of Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor Plants for Very Low Effluent Nitrogen and Phosphorus Concentrations

Out of six plants with nitrogen removal in Norway, four plants use the Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) process.

In all four cases the MBBR process offered a very compact treatment solution and had both the lowest investment costs and the lowest total annual costs.

These MBBR plants use the combined denitrification process (pre-denitrification + post-denitrification) for nitrogen removal, followed by chemical precipitation for phosphorus removal.

This type of design offers a lot of flexibility and enables the plants to produce very low effluent concentrations.

Years of full-scale experience from these MBBR plants has documented that final effluent concentrations below 3 mg total N/L and 0.3 mg total P/L can be achieved at low wastewater temperatures and at acceptable capital and O & M costs.

Read the full publication:

Rusten B. and Ødegaard H.: Design and Operation of Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor Plants for Very Low Effluent Nitrogen and Phosphorus Concentrations .