INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL Of ACADEMIC RESEARCH

Vol. 2. No. 5. September, 2010

A REVIEW IN INCREASING BIODEGRADABILITY OF WASTEWATER FOR BIOLOGICAL PROCESS

Guntur Priambodo , Nieke Karnaningroem
1 2 1 2

Doctorate Programme in Environmental Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering, Sepuluh Nopember Institute of Technology, Surabaya 60111 (INDONESIA)

ABSTRACT The paper reviewed treatment methods in incresing biodegradability of wastewater. Physico-chemical treatments consisted of ozonation, coagulation and hydrothermal processes. Biological tretament was mainly a combination of anaerobic and aerobic processes. Beside the two man-made treatment methods there is a natural method by means of phytotretament. Aquatic plants have ability to absorb recalcitrant organic matter resulted in increasing biodegradability of treated effluent. For an existing wastewater treatment plant, extending detention time by means of reducing flowrate would be appropriate to increase biodegradability of the waste. Key words: Biodegradability; organic matter; treatment methods 1. INTRODUCTION Organic matter-containing wastewater is a dynamic quality in the sense that the presence of organic compound is quantitatively not limited. Some organic compounds are persistent due to not biodegradable, toxic effect towards microbes, or biodegradable compounds are too low leading to insufficient carbon source for microbial activity. There is some consensus that stabilized wastewater has a BOD/COD ratio of less than 0.1 for a BOD of less than 100 mg/L and COD of less than 1000 mg/L[1]. Biological process at the low BOD/COD ratio is often ceased. This may indicate the presence either of organic matter that are hard to biodegrade or of toxic substance inhibiting the microbial activity. Therefore, Mangkoedihardjo [2] proposed to verify maximum COD content to be 500 mg/L for stabilized wastewater, and beyond the maximum limit, it is classified as toxic organic wastewater. For any level of BOD and COD that resulted in BOD/COD ratio of more than 0.1 is classified as biodegradable organic matter. Facing to the recalcitrant organic compounds, there was inappropriate to treat wastewater microbiologically. However, among wastewater technologies, biological oxidation is probably one of the most widespread treatment processes characterized by low maintenance costs and extensive knowledge of these types of processes, especially aerobic bio-oxidation. But for the wastewater, containing heavily biodegradable or even toxic compounds, it is impossible to achieve the necessary purification degree when using only biological methods [3]. Therefore this paper reviewed the progress of researches that provide alternative solutions to increase BOD/COD ratio. Increasing BOD/COD ratio by which wastewater become biodegradable enables an improvement in recalcitrant wastewater treatment. 2. PHYSICO-CHEMICAL TREATMENT The use of advanced oxidation methods (ozonation, UV-, hydrogen peroxide or catalyst assisted ozonation) enables not only destruction of toxic recalcitrant compounds, but also significantly increases the efficiency of subsequent biological oxidation [4-6] For example, ozonation before biological treatment (pre-ozonation) may create better conditions for subsequent biological process by enhancing biodegradability of wastewater. Postozonation can be applied as a polishing stage of wastewater treatment. Both options have a drawback in high ozone dosages required for satisfactory result with either pre-ozonation of heavily polluted concentrated wastewater or post-ozonation of large amounts of diluted biologically treated effluents. Stage-wise treatment of the wastewater in re-circulation mode between biological treatment and oxidation with ozone may offer a better solution in terms of treatment efficiency and minimising necessary ozone dose. Such kind of combined treatment schemes are considered especially perspective for treatment of recalcitrant wastewaters like effluents from pulp and paper, landfill leachates, chemical, textile, food and dye industry, etc [6,7]. The possibility of improving the biodegradability of drilling wastewater using ozone was investigated following coagulation pretreatment. The biodegradability of wastewater was improved significantly following the start of ozonation, and the molecular weight of organic compounds decreased continuously with the progress of oxidation. It is interesting that minimum biochemical oxygen demand, total organic carbon (BOD/TOC) ratio (0.4 g/g) was observed when wastewater was treated with ozone continuously for 15 min. The combination of ozonation for 5 min (ozone consumption ratio of 2.6 g ozone/g TOC) followed by biological degradation produced a total TOC removal rate of 54.3%, which was comparable to direct ozonation for 30 min under the same conditions (TOC removal rate of 54.9%; ozone consumption ratio of 8.7 g ozone/g TOC). It is clear that biological treatment following short-term ozonation was very efficient in TOC removal. A process of successive coagulation-precipitation, ozone oxidation, and biodegradation seemed to be a good option for drilling wastewater treatment [8] The improvement in readily biodegradable substrate content in the treated excess sludge proved that hydrothermal reactions could be successfully used as suitable method prior to biological treatment methods. This

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content change also provides the feasibility of reuse excess sludge as carbon source for enhancement of biological phosphorus removal, as demonstrated in the phosphorus release test, resulting in improvement of biological treatment process [9-12]. m-Dinitrobenzene, diphenylamine and resorcinol, three aromatic compounds found inhibitory or recalcitrant to biological treatments, were chosen as model chemicals for this study on the integration of photocatalyticbiological treatments. The degradation of each of these compounds was achieved by ultraviolet photocatalytic oxidation, leading to the formation of intermediate compounds. The photocatalytic treatment was performed in a TiO2 slurry reactor containing an aqueous solution of one of the three chemicals.The biodegradability of model wastewater treated photocatalytically was measured in terms of BOD1/TOC. Intermediate compounds that appeared at early stages of the photocatalytic degradation of m-dinitrobenzene or diphenylamine seemed to be more inhibitory than the parent compounds but this was not the case for resorcinol. A substantial improvement inBOD1/TOC could be achieved, but it required the mineralization of at least 80% of the organic carbon originally in the water. Microtoxity results confirmed the BOD1/TOC trends for diphenylamine [13] 3. BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT A steady-state laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor process for biological phosphorus removal (BPR) was developed, and the influence of wastewater biodegradability on BPR was studied in batch tests. Biodegradability was expressed in this work as the readily biodegradable fraction of wastewater COD (rbCOD) present in the mixed liquor after the anaerobic stage of the anaerobic/oxic cycle of the BPR process. The rbCOD fraction was changed by varying the organic composition of synthetic wastewater (different carbohydrates were used: saccharose, cellobiose, starch, and cellulose) or varying the anaerobic retention time (1.25, 4, 9, and 24 h) when only one kind of low biodegradable synthetic wastewater (starch composed) was used. A clear positive trend was observed between rbCOD and anaerobic P release, but such a clear relationship was not observed with BOD[5] measurements. Soluble carbohydrates allowed a BPR mechanism, but particulate carbohydrates seemed to cause nonbiological P removal. An increase in anaerobic retention time improved rbCOD concentrations up to 50%, approximately, and P removal, but excessive retention times, >9 h, should be used to reach good BPR results [14]. The biodegradability of wastewater from a slaughterhouse located in Kean, Turkey, was studied under -3 aerobic and anaerobic conditions. A very high total COD content of 7230 mg dm was found, due to an inefficient blood recovery system. Low BOD5/COD ratio, high organic nitrogen and soluble COD contents, were in accordance with a high blood content. A respirometry test for COD fractionation showed a very low readily biodegradable fraction (SS) of 2%, a rapidly hydrolysable fraction (SH) of 51%, a slowly hydrolysable fraction (XS) of 33% and an inert fraction of 6%. Kinetic analysis revealed that hydrolysis rates were much slower than these of domestic sewage. The results underlined the need for an anaerobic stage prior to aerobic treatment. Tests with an anaerobic batch reactor indicated efficient COD degradation, up to around 80% removal. Further anaerobic degradation of the remaining COD was much slower and resulted in the build up of inert COD compounds generated as part of the metabolic activities in the anaerobic reactor. Accordingly, it is suggested that an appropriate combination of anaerobic and aerobic reactors would have to limit anaerobic degradation to around 80% of the tCOD and an -3 effluent concentration above 1000 mgdm , for the optimum operation of the following aerobic stage [15]. 4. PHYTOTREATMENT An option of using natural organic chemicals produced by plants which is released from roots would be promising. Plant roots release exudates such as short chain organic acids, phenolics, enzymes, and proteins which are highly biodegradable. A mixture of organic matter-containing wastewater with low BOD/COD ratio and organic matter-releasing plant roots with high BOD/COD ratio could be expected to increase biodegradability of untreated wastewater. To this purpose phytotreatment method would be proposed to achieve results with a simple cost effective system. A floating aquatic plant waterhyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) has a worldwide invasive plant. Hyacinth is capable of rapid reproduction and able to tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions [16]. Hyacinth has been known to assist in the purification of water and wastewater because of its settlement action and absorption capacity. Hyacinth has been investigated for use in rhizofiltration, phytodegradation, and phytoextraction [17]. In addition hyacinth is readily available in local watercourses and wetlands. Therefore, research conducted by Mangkoedihardjo [2] assigned hyacinth as phytosanitary engineer to treat a low BOD/COD ratio of untreated wastewater and producing high BOD/COD ratio. Phytocapacity as demonstrated by hyacinth determined significantly high COD losses from wastewater and BOD enrichment of wastewater resulting in increasing BOD/COD ratio of wastewater. Initial COD concentration in wastewater would result in significant difference of organic matter performance parameters. For the initial COD of more than 500 mg/L, BOD/COD ratios were shown to increase about 0.30, increasing rates were about 0.2/day, and DTs were 4 days. For the initial COD of less than 500 mg/L, BOD/COD ratios were shown to increase 0.33 0.52, increasing rates were about 0.32/day, and DTs were 2 days. Finally, the increasing amount of BOD, microbial population, and evapotranspiration in hyacinth treatment suggest that enhanced rhizodegradation, phytotransformation and phytovolatilization did occur.

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5. DETENTION TIME

Vol. 2. No. 5. September, 2010

Dependence of ratio of BOD/COD to the functional group in the organic matter was investigated [18]. BOD and COD values of the synthetic wastewaters, prepeared using acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, n- buthanol, acetic acid, aniline, phenol and o- nitro phenol solutions were determined. Also dependence of ratio of BOD/COD to the number of microorganisms in the unit volume was studied. The results that BOD values of wastewaters contained phenol, aniline, formaldehyde and o-nitro phenol seperately are zero. This is the evidence that these matters have toxic effects on the organisms that are responsible for biochemical reaction. However, BOD/COD ratios of synthetically polluted wastewaters that contained n-buthanol, acetaldehyde, phenol, o-nitro phenol, formaldehyde, aniline and acetic acid seperately are not in the range of 0.4-0.8 which is typical for untreated wastewater. When the change in BOD and COD versus time in the dilution water; COD value reduced slowly as time passes because some of the organic matter biochemically degraded by the microorganisms, as for BOD value, it is low at the beginning, as time passes it rises very rapidly and then this rapid increase gradually decreased because of both the microorganisms are dying and the organic matter as o food for microorganisms is consumed. 6. CONCLUSION Increasing biodegradability of wastewater was necessary and strategic treatment prior to biological process. Single and/or multiple methods could be applied, consisting physico-chemical, biological and phytotreatments and an extended detention time. The essential part of the methods was reducing recalcitrant organic matter by which wastewater became biodegradable. REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. Borglin, S.E., Hazen, T.C., and C.M. Oldenburg. 2004. Comparison of aerobic and anaerobic biotreatment of municipal solid waste. Air & Waste Management.Association, 54: 815-822. Mangkoedihardjo, S. 2006. Biodegradability improvement of industrial wastewater using hyacinth. J. Applied Science, 6 (6): 1409-1414. Kaindl, N., Tillmann, U., Mbius, C.H. Enhancement of capacity and efficiency of a biological wastewater treatment plant. In Proc. The 6th IAWQ Symposium on Forest Industry Wastewaters (Tampere, Finland), 1999, 279 286. Leitzke, O., Friedrich, M. Methods for cleaning heavily polluted water using ozone combined with UV treatment and/or biological processes. In Proc. Reg. Conf. on Ozone Generation and Application to Water and Wastewater Treatment (Moscow), 1998, 567 588. Beaman, M.S., Lambert, S.D., Graham, N.J.D., Anderson, R. Role of ozone and recirculation in the stabilization of landfills and leachates. Ozone: Sci & Eng., 1998, 20, 121 132. Ried, A., Mielcke, J. The State Of Development And Operational Experience Gained With Processing Leachate With A Combination of Ozone And Biological Treatment, In: Proc.: 14th Ozone World Congress (Dearborn: IOA 1999). (2), pp.65 81. Rivas, J., Beltran, F., Acedo, B., Gimeno, O. Two-step wastewater treatment: sequential ozonation aerobic biodegradation. Ozone: Sci.&Eng., 2000, 22, 617 636. Wang, Y., Min Yang, Jing Zhang, Yu Zhang, Mengchun Gao. 2004. Improvement of biodegradability of oil field drilling wastewater using ozone. Ozone Science and Engineering, 26 (3): 309-315. Kappeler, J. and W. Gujer. 1992. Estimation of kinetic parameters of heterotrophic biomass under aerobic conditions and characterization of wastewater for activated sludge modeling, Water Science and Technology, 25 (6): 125-139. Henze, M., Gujer, W., Mino, T., Matsuo, T., Wentzel, M. C. and G. v. R Marais. 1995. Activated sludge model No.2, Scientific and Technical Report No.3, International Association on Water Quality. Seviour R. J., Mino T. and M. Onuki. 2003. The microbiology of biological phosphorus removal in activated sludge systems. Microbiology Reviews, 27: 99-127. Wei Y., Houten R. T. V., Borger A. R., Eikelboom D. H. and Y. Fan. 2003. Minimization of excess sludge production for biological wastewater treatment. Water Research, 37: 4453-4467. Bolduc, L. and W.A. Anderson. 1997. Enhancement of the biodegradability of model wastewater containing recalcitrant or inhibitory chemical compounds by photocatalytic pre-oxidation. Biodegradation, 8 (4): 237-249. De Lucas Martinez Antonio, Canizares Canizares Pablo, Rodriguez Mayor Lourdes, Villasenor Camacho Jos. 2001. Short-term effects of wastewater biodegradability on biological phosphorus removal. J. Environmental Engineering, 127 (3): 259-265. Rodrigo del Pozo, Didem Okutman Ta, Hakan Dulkadiroglu, Derin Orhon , Victorino Diez. 2003. Biodegradability of slaughterhouse wastewater with high blood content under anaerobic and aerobic conditions. J. Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, 78 (4): 384-391. Toft, D., C. Simenstad and J. Cordell, 2003. The effects of introduced water hyacinth on habitat structure, invertebrate assemblages, and fish diets. Estuaries, 26: 746-758.

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17. Salt, D.E., M. Blaylock, P.B.A. Nanda Kumar, V. Dushenkov, B.D. Ensley, I. Chet and I. Raskin, 1995. Phytoremediation: A novel strategy for the removal of toxic metals from the environment using plants. Biotechnology, 13:468-474. 18. Glhan Uz, Fatma Turak, Hseyin Afar, 2004. Adnan Menderes University, 4th AACD Congress, 29 Sept-3 Oct.2004, Kuadas-AYDIN, TURKEY Proceedings Book 177.DOC.

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