The experimental campaign was carried out using a lab-scale
SBBGR prototype (Fig. 1), which consisted of a 1 m Plexiglas
cylinder with internal diameter of 190 mm. The bottom of the
reactor (microbial bed; volume: 9 l) was filled with plastic
support material for biomass development (wheel shaped
plastic elements KMT-k1 from Kaldnes, Norway; 10 mm
diameter, 7 mm height, 630 m2
/m3 specific surface, 950 kg/m3
density, 0.75 porosity) packed between two sieves. In order to
start-up the reactor, activated sludge from a local municipal
WWTP was used as inoculum