Teck Leon Tan^1*, Roslan Mohd Yusof ² and Nik Norsyahariati Nik Daud³

¹Veterinary Public Health Laboratory, Department of Veterinary Services, Selangor, Malaysia

²Veterinary Public Health Division, Department of Veterinary Services, Putrajaya, Malaysia;roslanmy@dvs.govmy

³ Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia;niknor@upm.edu.my

^* Corresponding author: tltan@dvs.gov.my

Aerated Biofilter Reactor (ABR), also known as Biological Aerated Filtration (BAF) was designed, constructed for wastewater treatment for a cattle abattoir. The objective of this study is to monitor the performance of the Submerged Upflow Aerated Biofilter Reactor (ABR) system by using polyethene (PE) as media and evaluating the efficiency in removing pollutants. The reactor performance was examined with organic strength up to 930 mg/L BOD₅, at hydraulic loadings up to 1.8 kg m^-3 d^-1 and surface organic loadings up to 4.4 kg m^-2 d^-1. The performance of the reactor was evaluated based on the values of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solid (TSS), ammonia nitrogen (AN), oil and grease (O & G) and turbidity. The reactor demonstrated the capability of removal efficiencies for BOD₅ ranging from 83% to 96%, the system performance slightly deteriorated with time. Overall, for total suspended solid (TSS), 93% reduction was observed and consistently lower than 100 mg/l. The effluent criteria were also monitored for the removal efficiencies of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD₅), chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (AN), oil and grease (O & G) and turbidity. BAF system has shown the average elimination rates of 91%, 88%, 24%, 40%, and 91% respectively. Based on demonstrated performance, the BAF reactor was viable for the cattle abattoir wastewater treatment and met the effluent discharged criteria stated by Malaysia Environmental Quality Act in effluent discharge for BOD₅, COD and TSS.