Aerobic Biotreatment of Hospital wastewater

Abstract

This study aimed to use aerobic packed bed in biotreatment of the wastewater that discharge from AL-KARAMA hospital in Baghdad. The performance of packed-bed was examined for elimination of the organic compounds from wastewater under aerobic conditions. The parameters studied were: inoculums concentration, wastewater circulation rate through the bed, packing type and the temperature. The results show that the system efficiently removed about 82% of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and 80% of Biological oxygen demand (BOD), while percent reduction in turbidity was about 92% and reduction in nitrate concentration was about 87%. It was found that temperature of 37°C , circulation rate of 10 L/min and inoculums concentration of 3% gave the best results for biotreatment of wastewater.