Restaurant wastewater treatment with a two-chamber septic tank and a sequencing batch reactor

Abstract

Restaurant wastewater in Indonesia comprises a variety of organic components that are difficult to degrade, such as COD, BOD, TSS, and oils and fats. Although grease traps are usually used to collect restaurant wastewater, the effluent still exceeds the applicable standards. For this reason, the combined technology of a two-chamber septic tank (ST) and a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was chosen for this investigation. Both are biological treatment methods that involve an anaerobic and aerobic phase. This reactor will operate with a continuous influent flow that will be processed sequentially but discharged intermittently. The hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the ST-SBR was 12, 24, 36, and 48 hours, at aeration rates of 7 and 14 L/min, respectively. The results showed that introducing a Septic Tank increased the percentage of organic content removed and shortened the optimal HRT, resulting in a 24-hour optimal HRT and a 14 L/min aeration rate. With an average efficiency of 86.72% to 98.63% in removing organic components.

Keywords

• wastewater
• sbr
• biological treatment methods