Performance evaluation of the integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) for industrial wastewater treatment containing ethylene glycol

Treating the industrial wastewater is one of the most important methods to help the environment around the humans. In this research, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate chemical oxygen demand (COD) reduction from a synthetic laboratory-scale integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) system. The IFAS reactor can have a high influence on treating wastewater containing hazardous environmental pollutants from industrial wastewater in various cycle times (CT). The ethylene glycol (EG) with the concentrations of 600, 800, 1200, and 1800 mg/L by CT of 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, and 4 h are considered to obtain the mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS), food-to-microorganism ratio (F/M), organic loading rate (OLR), surface organic loading rate (SLR) and COD reduction parameters. The experimental results showed that the highest EG and COD removal of the IFSA system occurred at the highest CT (CT = 4 h). The results showed that the COD reduction efficiency of the system has an inverse effect on the volume fractions of ethylene glycol. Moreover, the F/M of the system with an EG of 1800 mg/L was about 2.3 kgCOD/KgMLSS. Moreover, the amount of the OLR of IFAS with an EG of 600 mg/L was 5.4 kgCOD/m3d at a cycle time of 2 h. Additionally, the highest amount of SLR and MLSS of the system was obtained in EG of 1800 mg/L, which were about 43.3 gCODm2/d and 4650 mg/L, respectively.