Petroleum refineries produce large amount of wastewaters, which often contain a wide range of different compounds. Some of these constituents may be recalcitrant and therefore difficult to be treated biologically. This study evaluated the capability of an aerobic submerged fixed-bed reactor (ASFBR) containing a corrugated PVC support material for biofilm attachment to treat a complex and high-strength organic wastewater coming from a petroleum refinery. The reactor operation was divided into five experimental runs which lasted more than 250 days. During the reactor operation, the applied volumetric organic load was varied within the range of 0.5-2.4 kgCOD.m(-3).d(-1). Despite the inherent fluctuations on the characteristics of the complex wastewater and the slight decrease in the reactor performance when the influent organic load was increased, the ASFBR showed good stability and allowed to reach chemical oxygen demand, dissolved organic carbon and total suspended solids removals up to 91%, 90% and 92%, respectively. Appreciable ammonium removal was obtained (around 90%). Some challenging aspects of reactor operation such as biofilm quantification and important biofilm constituents (e.g. polysaccharides (PS) and proteins (PT)) were also addressed in this work. Average PS/volatile attached solids (VAS) and PT/VAS ratios were around 6% and 50%, respectively. The support material promoted biofilm attachment without appreciable loss of solids and allowed long-term operation without clogging. Microscopic observations of the microbial community revealed great diversity of higher organisms, such as protozoa and rotifers, suggesting that toxic compounds found in the wastewater were possibly removed in the biofilm.
In the present work, four oxidation techniques were investigated (O3, O3/UV, H2O2/O3, O3/H2O2/UV) to pre-treat reverse osmosis (RO) concentrate before treatment in a moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) system. Without previous oxidation, the MBBR was able to remove a small fraction of the chemical oxygen demand (COD) (5-20%) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) (2-15%). When the concentrate was previously submitted to oxidation, DOC removal efficiencies in the MBBR increased to 40-55%. All the tested oxidation techniques improved concentrate biodegradability. The concentrate treated by the combined process (oxidation and MBBR) presented residual DOC and COD in the ranges of 6-12 and 25-41 mg L(-1), respectively. Nitrification of the RO concentrate, pre-treated by oxidation, was observed in the MBBR. Ammonium removal was comprised between 54 and 79%. The results indicate that the MBBR was effective for the treatment of the RO concentrate, previously submitted to oxidation, generating water with an improved quality.
Nitrification of wastewaters from chemical industries can pose some challenges due to the presence of inhibitory compounds. Some wastewaters, besides their organic complexity present variable levels of salt concentration. In order to investigate the effect of salt (NaCl) content on the nitrification of a conventional biologically treated industrial wastewater, a bench scale moving-bed biofilm reactor was operated on a sequencing batch mode. The wastewater presenting a chloride content of 0.05 g l(-1) was supplemented with NaCl up to 12 g Cl(-) l(-1). The reactor operation cycle was: filling (5 min), aeration (12 or 24h), settling (5 min) and drawing (5 min). Each experimental run was conducted for 3 to 6 months to address problems related to the inherent wastewater variability and process stabilization. A PLC system assured automatic operation and control of the pertinent process variables. Data obtained from selected batch experiments were adjusted by a kinetic model, which considered ammonia, nitrite and nitrate variations. The average performance results indicated that nitrification efficiency was not influenced by chloride content in the range of 0.05 to 6 g Cl(-) l(-1) and remained around 90%. When the chloride content was 12 g Cl(-) l(-1), a significant drop in the nitrification efficiency was observed, even operating with a reaction period of 24 h. Also, a negative effect of the wastewater organic matter content on nitrification efficiency was observed, which was probably caused by growth of heterotrophs in detriment of autotrophs and nitrification inhibition by residual chemicals.
The wastewater from food-processing industries is generally heavily charged with lipids and proteins. Flotation process is commonly applied to separate the hydrophobic material phase, producing flotation froth, a waste that has high levels of fats and proteins. Enzymatic hydrolysis may be used to overcome the difficulty of fat biotransformation in a subsequent anaerobic digestion. In the present work, wastes from the flotation process of two industries (dairy and poultry slaughterhouse) were hydrolyzed with a commercial lipase and without enzyme addition (control). The effect of adjusting the pH at the beginning of the hydrolytic assays was also investigated. The long chain free fatty acids (LCFAs) released were identified and quantified and 5-d digestion assays were conducted with the hydrolyzed material. The results indicated that the hydrolysis assays conducted with initial pH adjusted to 7.0 and the utilization of a commercial enzyme promoted a higher increase in amounts of LCFAs, particularly of unsaturated acids. In most anaerobic digestion assays, the specific methane production showed a decreasing trend with the increase of unsaturated fatty acids in the medium. In general, the utilization of a commercial enzyme (lipase) in the hydrolysis process did not contribute to enhancing methane production in 5-d anaerobic digestion assays.
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