A chemical company is planning to treat its wastewater containing high concentration of phenol (1000 mg/L) with a number of completely mixed bioreactors operating in series.
a) Determine the number of completely mixed bioreactors (detention time of 45 min each) that would be required to meet the phenol discharge limit of 5 mg/L. The first-order removal rate constant is equal to 6.1 hr-1
b) If a plug-flow reactor was used with the same detention time as the above (the detention time for the whole system), what would be the phenol concentration after treatment?