Due to sudden change in loading rate to the reactor,
the removal efficiency of BTEX was decreased from 99.69% to
72.97%, 99.62% to 69.94%, 99.59% to 70.99% and 97.89% to
70.50%, respectively, which might be due to deterioration of packing
media bed, nutrients limitation and toxicity of degradation
products. Later on, the removal efficiencies increased subsequently
over a time period. Removal efficiency of BTEX increases to more
than 90% after 10, 9, 10 and 11 days of the operation, respectively.
In this phase, ethyl benzene removal was slower than the other
three compounds, but eventually increased up to 97.66%.