Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 15061510

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Bioresource Technology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/biortech

An innovative attached-growth biological system for purication of pond water

Chia-Yuan Chang a,*, Jing-Song Chang a, Chien-Min Chen b, Chart Chiemchaisri c,
Saravanamuthu Vigneswaran d
a

Department of Environmental Engineering and Science, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan 71710, Taiwan
Department of Environmental Resources Management, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy and Science, Tainan 71710, Taiwan
c
Department of Environmental Engineering, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand
d
Faculty of Engineering, University of Technology, Sydney, NSW 2007, Australia
b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 17 May 2009
Received in revised form 12 August 2009
Accepted 14 August 2009
Available online 15 September 2009
Keywords:
Attached-growth biological system
Pond water
Used diaper
Non-woven

a b s t r a c t
This study applied the non-woven material from used diaper as the carrier for bio-lm process to purify
the recycled water from a landscape pond at the Tainan City Municipal Culture Center (TCMCC), Taiwan.
An on-site system was installed and the experiment was accomplished through three stages in 192 days
with different time periods of 70 days, 63 days, and 59 days, respectively. The results showed that the
non-woven media is functional for SS removal. The average SS removal of stages 1, 2, and 3 were 91%,
96%, and 95%, respectively. The highest SCOD removal efciency of 90% occurred at stage 3. A signicant
color improvement of the pond water was achieved through this non-woven bio-carrier treatment system. Whole system can be without any maintenance for 139 days. The result indicated that the nonwoven medium system was with a great potential in treating and recycling the pond water with stable
operation and satisfactory removal performance.
2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Landscape ponds are usually considered a close system with
limited water circulation resulting in accumulation of pollutants
which could be from run-off and sh feeding. Consequently, increases of these nutrients levels in water can eventually lead to algal boom (eutrophication), deterioration of water quality, growth
of disease transmitting insects, such as mosquitoes, and other
artistic, or sanitary problems.
Three different approaches were commonly used to control
pond water quality including: to replace pond water with fresh
water. This option, though, is in contrast to environmental constrains, bio-security, and water scarcity considerations; to treat
water quality within the pond system, using algae (partitioned
aquaculture ponds) or bacterial communities (Cromar et al.,
1996); and to recycle the water through an external treatment unit
that purify the water. Biological treatment could be used as an
external treatment unit to deal with polluted ponds, for example,
the bio-lm or attached-growth biological processes such as trickling lters, submerged aerobic biological lters, rotating biological
contactors, moving-bed, and mixing-bed bio-lm process (Akker
et al., 2008; Kinner and Curds, 1987; Luostarinen et al., 2006).
These systems have the advantage of a high concentration of active
biomass due to microorganism immobilization; and nitrication
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 953 850 800; fax: +886 6 266 9090.
E-mail address: mcychang@mail.chna.edu.tw (C.-Y. Chang).
0960-8524/$ - see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2009.08.059

has been proven to be less negatively affected by the low temperatures in bio-lm systems compared to conventional suspendedgrowth activated sludge process. The main advantages of attached-growth biological processes seem to be (Delatolla et al.,
2008, 2009; Ramesh et al., 1999)
(1) higher biomass concentrations in the reaction tank, which
correspond to lower wastage of biomass;
(2) consortia of aerobic and anoxic metabolic activity within the
same biomass ecosystem;
(3) lower sensitivity to toxicity effects, as well as to other
adverse circumstances;
(4) up-grading of existing systems at a minimum cost, and
(5) reduction of sludge-settling periods.
The use of external treatment unit was practiced successfully
for years. These systems are operative, well tested, proven, and
can be obtained commercially. However, they are quite costly, both
in investment and in operation. So, the technology development
based on the substantial aspects of low-cost, energy-saving, easyoperation, and maintenance has caused more and more attentions
on water and wastewater treatment (Wang, 1991). Recently, some
studies on the use of non-woven for the nitrication of polluted
river water, specic chemical compound, and synthetic wastewater demonstrated high application potential for the degradation
of pollutants (Bhatti et al., 2002; Furukawa et al., 2000; Liu et al.,
2008). Those researches have reported that bacterial biomass can

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be easily detached and re-attached on the non-woven. Beside, nonwoven material is light in weight, inexpensive, and durable, which
are desirable properties for use in bio-lm process.
The objective of the present investigation was to evaluate the
treatability of pond water by using a bio-lm reactor system where
a non-woven material obtained from used diaper was adopted as
bio-carrier. An on-site treatment system installed at Tainan City
Municipal Culture Center (TCMCC) was monitored for 192 days
to evaluate the effectiveness and stability of the whole system.
2. Methods
2.1. Experimental setup and operation
An on-site treatment unit for polluted pond water treatment
was installed in September 2007 beside the landscape pond at
Tainan City Municipal Culture Center (TCMCC). The unit consisted
of three rectangular tanks, a sinking-style water pump, ow rate
meter, and pipes. All the tanks with the same working volume of
135 L
(38 cm
high,
73 cm  52.5 cm
top
area
and
68.5 cm  49.5 cm bottom area) were xed to a wide base constructed by several hard plastic baskets which was higher than
pond water surface. Water was pumped from the pond into the
system continuously daily, and ow through the rst and second
tanks for bio-degradation. No aeration was provided in both tanks
1 and 2. After the third tank, which served as the nal settlement
unit, the treated water was then directed back to the pond. This
study was accomplished through three stages in 192 days with different time periods of 70 days, 63 days, and 59 days, respectively.
The non-woven texture taken out from used diaper was cleaned
rstly with water to remove attached absorption polymers and
other matters. After washed, the non-woven sheet was cut into
piece to have a size of 5 cm  3.5 cm  0.1 cm and a weight of
0.117 g, and was then rolled into a stick and fastened with rubber
bands. The rolled-up non-woven piece was used as a bio-carrier
and put in tanks 1 and 2 with a volume percentage of 2.1 or 3.1 depended on the design of experiment. The operational condition in
the process is summarized in Table 1. Two parameters including
HRT (hydraulic retention time) and media lling capacity were
evaluated in this study. For stages 1 and 2, the inuence of HRT
was examined and the effect of media lling capacity on system
performance was evaluated through stages 2 and 3.

3. Results and discussion

3.1. Temperature and DO
This study was performed on an on-site experimental plant at
TCMCC from autumn (September) to spring (February). The climatic condition in Tainan City is that of subtropical monsoon climate with a mean annual rainfall about 140 mm. The mean
monthly air temperature varies between 17 C and 30 C. During
the period of DecemberFebruary is the coldest period, and the
warmest period is between June and September.
Fig. 1 shows the dissolved oxygen and temperature recorded
during the experiment period. The treatment system was carried
out from September 2007 to February 2008. It is obvious that DO
was affected signicantly by water temperature. In stage 1 (day
070), a narrow range of DO from 4.5 mg/L to 5.5 mg/L was observed which responding to a range of water temperature from
18.4 C to 28.3 C. For stage 2 (day 71133), the water temperature
was much lower than stage 1 and eventually reach down a lowest
temperature of 12.7 C. DO concentration increased apparently at
this stage and nally raised up to a highest DO concentration of
8.35 mg/L at the end of this stage. For stage 3 (day 134192), the
water temperature increased gradually and resulted in a DO range
from 4.2 mg/L to 6.6 mg/L. In this study, the efuent DO concentration always remained at a level which higher than 4.0 mg/L even in
the high temperature climate. However, no aeration and mechanical stirring were supplied in the tanks for the whole experiment
period. It indicated that the DO contained in pond water is sufcient to meet the need of microbe activity in this system as well
as a low energy-consumption bio-lm system was conducted in
this study.
3.2. SS and biomass
Fig. 2 illustrates the attached biomass variations of tanks 1 and
2 during the test. It is apparent that there was a signicant difference of biomass between tank 1 and tank 2 during stage 1. It is reasonable that most of the nutrient was consumed in tank 1 and
resulted in a biomass accumulation of tank 1. The biomass of tank
2 increased at the end of stage 1 and sequentially reached a same

2.2. Sampling and analysis

DO, temperature, and ow rates were recorded on site weekly.
The inuent and efuent of system were sampled and analyzed
once a week. The analysis including dissolved chemical oxygen demand (SCOD), suspended solids (SS), total soluble phosphate (TSP),
and chlorophyll-a were performed in accordance with the standard
methods (APHA, 1995) and the corresponding instrument instruction manuals. For nitrogenous compounds sampling and analysis,
the corresponding dates occasionally were given on days 63, 84,
119, and 185. The biomass attached on the bio-carriers is rst desquamated by ultrasonic vibration for 15 min, and then the mixed
liquid is ltered through 0.45 lm Millipore lter and dried at
105 C for measurement of dry weight.

Fig. 1. Proles of temperature and DO.

Table 1
Experimental plan and operating conditions.

Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3

Operational periods (day)

HRT (h)

Tank 1 + tank 2 (L)

No of medium in each tank

Filling capacity (vol.%)

70
63
59

3
2
3

270
270
270

1600
1600
2400

2.1
2.1
3.1

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C.-Y. Chang et al. / Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 15061510

Fig. 2. Attached biomass variations during the test.

level with tank 1 at stage 2. However, the biomass of tank 1 or tank

2 decreased gradually and reached a stable level at the end of stage
2. Around day 139 (stage 3), a high turbidity level caused by takenoff biomass and a foul smell happened in tank 2. For eliminating
this problem, all media were taken out from tanks 1 and 2 for rinse
on site using the pond water. The rinsed media were re-induced in
the tanks at the same day to restart the experiment. One meaningful nding from that is that this system can be without any maintenance including the media cleaning and sludge withdrawal for
more than 4 months. It was found that the biomass at stage 3,
whichever tank 1 or tank 2, was much lower and stable than stages
1 and 2. In this study, the suspension solid concentrations of tanks
1 and 2 were low and varied in a range of 3.555 mg/L. The low SS
concentration in mixing liquid indicated that the attached microorganisms played as the dominate species for the pollutants removal in the system.
Fig. 3 presents the SS of inuent, efuent, and SS removal in this
system. The average SS removal of stages 1, 2, and 3 were 91%, 96%,
and 95%, respectively. A wide deviation of removal efciency was
found in stage 1. It revealed that the removal of SS at stage 1
was not stable. The inuent SS of stage 2 was stable but normally
increased with time at stage 3, however, the SS removal of stages 2
and 3 were higher than which of stage 1 and with a narrow deviation of removal efciency. It certainly indicated that the SS removal of stages 2 and 3 were stable, even the media was rinsed
in the beginning of stage 3. The results of this study showed that
the non-woven media is functional for SS removal. The eld observation also showed that the large and fast-settling bio-ocs were
found in the settling tank.
3.3. SCOD removal
The inuent, efuent, and removal of SCOD during the experimental period are presented in Fig. 4. It is obvious that the inuent

Fig. 3. Inuent, efuent and removal of SS.

Fig. 4. Inuent, efuent and removal of SCOD.

SCOD of stage 1 uctuated from 41 mg/L to 133 mg/L, then kept

stable at stage 2 and eventually displayed an increasing trend to
reach a highest inuent SCOD concentration of 168 mg/L on day
192 at stage 3. The average SCOD removal of stages 1, 2, and 3 were
68%, 61%, and 61%, respectively and the highest SCOD removal efciency of 90% occurred at stage 3.
During the stage 1 of 77 days, it was found that the SCOD in
efuent was in the range of 1331 mg/L, and SCOD removal varied
from 50% to 77%. Apparently, the removal uctuated within the initial 35 days and kept quite stable at about 7677% subsequently as
shown in Fig. 4. On days 14, 42, and 56, the inuent SCODs were
much higher than other measurements of stage 1, however, the
SCOD removal of these three days were higher than the average.
The OLR variation changed from 0.1 kg to 1.3 kg SCOD/m3-day
was obtained at this stage. Comparing the inuent concentration
with OLR, it seems that the OLR (organic loading rate) varied with
inuent concentration. This shows good adaptability and tolerance
of the attached microbes in this system to the shock loading.
During the following stage 2 of 56 days, it was found that the
SCOD in efuent was in the range of 1541 mg/L, and SCOD removal varied from 32% to 74% (average of 61%). At this stage, the
inuent SCOD was more stable and lower than other two stages.
However, the poor removal efciencies were observed in the initial
period of this stage. Two main disadvantage conditions, water temperature and HRT, were suggested which could worst the SCOD removal efciency at stage 2. Firstly, it could be caused by a decrease
in water temperature in winter. At stage 2, the winter season
caused the low water temperature varied from 12.7 C (day 126)
to 21.2 C (day 84). In fact, the SCOD removal initially had a big
drop from day 70 (the last sampling of stage 1) to day 77 (the rst
sampling of stage 2). As shown in Fig. 2, the water temperature at
the beginning of stage 2 was with a same level with the temperature at the end of stage 1. So, it could be concluded that the effect
of water temperature on SCOD removal was not to be signicant
except day 126. Moreover, according to the experiment design,
the HRT of stage 2 was shortened to 2 h. As mentioned above,
the SCOD removal dropped suddenly at the beginning of stage 2
and continued to down to 43% on day 91. After day 91, the SCOD
removal kept increasing to reach the highest removal of 74% on
day 119. This variation seems due to the poor adaptability of bacteria since the ow rate of stage 2 was much higher than that of
stage 1. Sequentially, the lowest SCOD removal of 32% occurred
on day 126, when the lowest water temperature of 12.7 C
happened.
At stage 3, the ow rate was reset to the same value as stage 1
as well as an extra 800 nascent non-woven media was added in

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C.-Y. Chang et al. / Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 15061510

Table 2
Nitrogenous compounds concentrations and removal on days 63, 84, 119 and 185.
Day

63
84
119
185

NO
2 -N (mg/L)

NH
4 -N (mg/L)

Org-N (mg/L)

NO
3 -N (mg/L)

Inf.

Eff.

Inf.

Eff.

Inf.

Eff.

Inf.

Eff.

0.82
1.28
1.087
2.23

0.35
0.95
0.89
0.54

0.03
0.15
0.188
0.15

0.08
0.12
0.03
0.14

0.01
0.06

0.0083

0.02
0.14

0.055

0.06
0.02

0.19
0.11
0.11
0.126

TKN (%)

TN (%)

49.4
25.2
27.8
71.4

30.4
12.6
19.2
63.9

tanks 1 and 2, respectively. As mentioned above, all media in tanks

1 and 2 were taken out for rinse and then re-induced in the tanks
on day 139. The rinsed media apparently resulted in the highest
SCOD removal on day 143 and 150 as shown in Fig. 4. Basically,
the inuent SCODs at this stage were higher averagely than those
of stages 1 and 2. The OLR results showed that the OLRs of stage 3
were much higher that other stages. It could be reasonable contributed to the increase of media at stage 3. However, Fig. 2 showed
that the total attached biomass of stage 3 which was much lower
that those of other stages. An average F/M of 6.2 (kg SCOD per attached biomass per day) obtained from stage 3 was higher than
that of stages 1 and 2. The results obtained from stage 3 indicated
that the microbe in the adherent bio-lm became more active and
acclimatized to the pond water.
3.4. Nitrogen removal
Table 2 summarizes the inuent and efuent levels of nitrogenous compounds as well as the TKN and TN removal measured
on days 63, 84, 119, and 185. As presented in Table 2, TKN and
TN removal in the system were relatively unstable and their efciencies dropped to as low as 25.9% and 14.6% during the experimental period of stage 2. The poor performance on day 119 was
caused by a decrease in water temperature in winter, when the
water temperature dropped to 17 C. It is believed that nitrication
was signicantly affected by temperature (Obaja et al., 2003). In
this study, TKN removal at 24.7 C (day 185) was about 2.6 times
higher than that at 17 C (day 119). As shown in Fig. 4, the corresponding SCOD removal for days 63, 84, 119, and 185 were 77%,
47%, 74%, and 65%, respectively. Compare to SCOD removal, low
temperature showed a more adverse inuence on nitrogen removal. It should be noted that the HRT of stage 2 was shortened
from 3 h to 2 h. It is believed that the bacteria responsible for nitrication have slow growth rate compared to the bacteria for removing organics (Blackburne et al., 2008).
3.5. TSP and chlorophyll-a removal
Fig. 5 shows the inuent concentrations and removal efciencies of TSP and chlorophyll-a. The inuent of TSP presented in a
range of 0.69 lg/L. The system gave the average TSP removal of
each stage from 27% to 52% and the highest removal of TSP was
74% occurred on day 164. The relationship between inuent
SCOD/TSP and TSP removal showed that TSP removal exhibited a
decrease trend with the increasing of inuent SCOD/TSP. Theoretically, chemical oxygen demand (COD) acts as a limiting factor for
phosphorus release and denitrication in conventional biological
nutrient removal (BNR) processes (Meinhold et al., 1999). It means
that the increase of the inuent SCOD will result in a decrease of
the efuent phosphorus concentration in a BNR process. Obviously,
the relationship of inuent SCOD/TSP with TSP removal of this
study is different from the results of BNR processes. However, different mechanism of carbon uptake between BNR processes and
bio-lm reactor has been proposed (Morgenroth and Wilderer,
1998). According to Morgenroth and Wilderer, phosphorus re-

Fig. 5. Inuents and removal of TP and chlorophyll-a.

moval would be restricted in a bio-lm system when the inuent

COD concentration reached above a certain level. It reported that
the supplied COD in inuent ordinarily can not be taken up completely during the anaerobic period, and then the metabolism of
phosphate-accumulating organisms will be inhibited during the
aerobic condition since other heterotrophic bacteria will dominate
the bio-lm by utilizing the residual COD.
As shown in Fig. 5, the inuent chlorophyll-a varied from 56 lg/
L to 162 lg/L. The average chlorophyll-a removal of stages 1, 2, and
3 were 68%, 59%, and 51%, respectively. It meant that more than
50% of chlorophyll-a could be removed from the water. In general,
the removal of chlorophyll-a by this non-woven media system is
signicant. The highest removal was 98% obtained on day 126 as
well as the system could give a good visual improvement of the
polluted pond water. The result also showed that the grey green
water would become transparent when the chlorophyll-a removal
was above 63% in this case.
One thing should be noted is that the C:N:P ratios calculated by
inuent measurement in this study were much higher than standard ratio of 100:5:1. Based on the standard ratio, it is obvious that
soluble N and P in pond water are not enough for complete biodegradation of COD. However, the removal of COD is less affected
by the inuent N and P levels in this study. The phenomena could
be explained by the co-existence of bacteria and algae in the treatment system. Algae and bacteria could initially co-attach onto the
non-woven surface from the bulk of pond water. Since this system
was installed under the bridge, algae could consequently perish
due to the lack of light source. The deteriorated algae could decompose and provide the nutrients to meet the microbe activity need
in the system. It meant that the real C:N:P ratio in this system
would be lower than the value calculated by inuent measurement
as well as the exact removal of nutrient from the system would be
higher than the presented data. However, the mechanism of bacteriaalgae interactions is unascertained and further studies could be
carried out.

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C.-Y. Chang et al. / Bioresource Technology 101 (2010) 15061510

4. Conclusions
The concept of household waste recycling was adopted by using
the non-woven material from used diaper as the bio-carrier for
pond water purication. The results presented that the non-woven
bio-carrier system is functional for color, SS, and SCOD removal.
The results indicated the greater the inuent SCOD/TN, the worse
the TN and TKN removal were obtained. Similar relationship between SCOD and TSP was found. The signicant removal of chlorophyll-a revealed that the exact removal of nutrient would be
higher than the presented data due to the deteriorated algae. The
further studies could be carried out to make clear of the mechanism of bacteriaalgae interactions in the system.
Acknowledgements
This study was partially supported by the Tainan City Municipal
Culture Center (TCMCC). The authors acknowledge the assistance
from TCMCC director, Mr. Hsiu-Cheng Chen. The authors would
also like to thank the supplement of used diaper from Mr. Paul
Yu-Kai Chang.
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