The philosophy & the process of SBT for treating Water / Wastewater / Air Scrubber water / Solid & Municipal Waste remains the same with very little application & site specific alterations.
SBT systems are typically housed in RCC, stone-masonry or soil bunds and consists of an impervious containment. It is a batch process of 6 – 12 hours per day with 5 to 7 days of operations per week. It consist of raw water tank, one bioreactor containment, treated water tank & where appropriate a greenhouse, associated piping, pumps & electrical equipments. Bioreactor containment houses i) The media , ii) The microbial culture, iii) The additives & iv) The plantation required for the bioconversion.
Water or wastewater is pumped over the bioreactor typical with a hydraulic loading in the range of 0.05-0.15 m3/m2.h.; the suspended solids are removed by the top media which is scrapped & discarded into municipal solid waste. The water trickles into the bed & treated water collects in the filtrate tank. Recirculation pumps are provided to obtain desired hydraulic retention times. In the case of air purification the air to be purified is scrubbed with SBT treated water and retreated.
Solid waste/ hospital waste is unloaded on to bioreactor where it undergoes bioconversion which takes 12-16 weeks during which the environment pH & moisture are regulated by additives & moisture sprinkling. The processed material is harvested periodically & used as fertilizer.
