If you were to bring up the topic of moving bed biofilm reactor in everyday conversation, you are likely to get some perplexed looks. Unless you are in the sector of wastewater, it will initially sound like some scientific mumbo-jumbo that probably has nothing to do with you or your everyday life. Not so fast though, every product that you purchase from a store was manufactured somewhere in an industrial factory or plant. Almost all industrial related factories and plants produce wastewater with toxins and other substances in it. The burden is on them to treat this wastewater to meet regulations and minimize harm to the environment. Because of the complexity of the process, wastewater treatment can quickly become a costly process which, in turn, drives up the prices of products that the facility manufactures. Wastewater treatment is also important in the sector of safely recycling water, being it is one of the earth’s most precious resources. In other words, when they save money on wastewater treatment, you get to save money and help the environment too.

Moving bed biofilm reactors are a water purifying system with a process that utilizes biological technology to filter wastewater in both domestic and industrial domains. Most often, it is used for nitrification, purification, and BOD removal; it can be an effective stand alone as well as augment other wastewater treatment systems. Conventional activated sludge (ASP) water purification processes require a rather large space to be put in. Whereas, moving bed biofilm reactors only take up a third of the space that the conventional water treatment systems would. Leaving more space available to utilize for other equipment and needs is a money saver right off the bat.

In addition, conventional wastewater treatment systems also frequently run into complications such as clogging, which require more work in the form of backwashing, as well as other difficulties that, again, require time and work to remedy. Moving bed biofilm reactor systems can filter at a higher capacity and allow for continuous operation, eliminating the need for sludge return or backwashing. Another perk of the moving bed biofilm reactor process is that it only requires one go around to treat the water while other wastewater treatment processes require multiple passes for optimal treatment. The moving bed biofilm reactor is essentially a hybrid child of the conventional sludge treatment processes and utilization of biofilm media; aimed to encompass all the good qualities of both processes and drop the bad ones.

In order to fully understand the benefits of moving bed biofilm reactors, you must know how it operates. It starts with an aeration tank that contains what is called media, or floating plastic carriers. This allows for an increase in the number of microorganisms in the tank to treat the wastewater. Microorganisms need to attach to some type of media in order to flourish and grow, and that is exactly what the plastic carriers provide for it. The aeration system agitates the media with bubbles formed from the oxygen that is added in the bottom of the aeration tank. The microorganisms then consume all the organic material that is in the wastewater, essentially purifying the water. The combination of the microorganisms attached on the surface of the media is what the word biofilm refers to. The microorganisms are able to adjust with the load fluctuations automatically. This system requires little to no maintenance because the processes are able to self sustain the best level of productive microorganism biofilm on the media.

Being a milestone in the history of microbiology, the discovery of biofilm, first observed by Van Leeuwenhoek through a microscope, has been utilized widely in modern day applications. What led to this conclusion is the observation of surface-associated microorganisms and their inherent ability to develop a community structure and ecosystem, as well as sustain themselves sufficiently. This biofilm was first seen on the surfaces of human teeth with a basic microscope and then further observed later with the electron microscope. Microorganisms that are adhered to a surface function better overall and are surprisingly durable and flexible. Its unique phenotype is responsible for these distinct characteristics that make it a viable solution in the sector of water treatment.