Recent industrial development had produced new organic compounds that could not be easily degraded by natural purification system of our environment. As one of them, 2,4-DCP discharged from the pulp/paper or herbicide manufacturing industries had become a major pollutant in the water system due to its low volatility and high solubility.
As in other countries, the wasted tires increased sharply in Korea, yielding over one million in 1992. Dumped wasted tires caused many problems on environment, aesthetic, and public health. It necessitated the development of the proper management of wasted tires.
Recently, it was found that wasted tires had the adsorption capacity for color, organic toxic compound and heavy metals). The wasted tires could be used as adsorbents and used as a linear material in the landfill.
In this study, biomass affinity test was conducted for wasted tires. It was concluded that wasted tires could produce the biofilm on its surface by 3.72 mg VSS/㎠. And adsorption test of 2,4-DCP to wasted tires was conducted and its capacity was compared with activated carbon. Portion of the biodegradation on 2,4-DCP was appreciated from this results.
Finally wasted tires were adopted as media in the anaerobic-aerobic sequential biofilm reactors for the treatment of industrial wastewater containing 2,4-DCP. Two downflow anaerobic and aerobic biofilm reactors having tire chips were operated to treat organic matters for four months. This system was found suitable for the biodegradation of polychlorinated phenol as anaerobic condition degraded polychlorinated phenol by reductive dechlorination and the following aerobic condition degraded monochlorinated phenol produced from 2,4-DCP as an intermediate. In this study 2,4-DCP could be degraded by 98% after treatment in anaerobic biofilm reactor and 4-CP by about 70% in aerobic biofilm reactor.
A biofilm model was developed using the experimental data, which made it possible to predict the removal of other pollutants as well as to design the biofilm reactor.
