Biodegradation of Organic Substances by Biological Activated Carbon – Simulation of Bacterial Activity on Granular Activated Carbon

Biodegradation of organic substances by attached bacteria on biological activated carbon (BAC) was studied to clarify the advantages of granular activated carbon (GAC) as support media over conventional media without adsorption capacity with regard to biodegradation activity and community structure of attached bacteria. Anthracite (AN) was used as reference support medium without adsorbability. Low molecular organic substances with different biodegradability and adsorbability (phenol, glucose, benzoic acid and m-aminobenzoic acid) were fed into completely mixed BAC and AN reactors. The rate of biodegradation by BAC reactors fed with biodegradable organic substances was approximately 3 times as high as that by AN reactors. The difference in adsorbability of organic substances onto GAC had little effects on the rate of biodegradation. The structure of GAC with micro and macro pores did not provide better habitat for attached bacteria with regard to the size of population in comparison with anthracite without pores. The rates of biodegradation per attached bacteria for biodegradable organic substances in the BAC reactors were from 1.7 to 4.9 times higher than those in the AN reactors. GAC, as a bacterial support media, stimulated the biodegradation activity of each bacteria without increase in their population and probably with little change in their species composition. Although the number of attached bacteria on BAC was not different significantly from that on anthracite, m-aminobenzoic acid with low biodegradability was degraded only by the GAC reactor.