Effects of chromium on activated sludge and on the performance of wastewater treatment plants: A review

Vaiopoulou, Eleni; Gikas, Petros

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2011.11.024

Cited by 217 publications

(78 citation statements)

References 111 publications

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“…to the loading of Cd and Cr in wastewater, and consequently in sludge, could not be neglected [1,6,10]. Cr(VI) could originate in urban sludge from tap water (groundwater contaminated from industrial processes), drinking water distribution system from corrosion inhibitors used in water pipes and products containing chromates and dichromates [40,41].…”

Section: Temporal Variations Of Sludge Metal Contentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal variability of sewage sludge heavy metal content from Greek wastewater treatment plants

Spanos

Ene

Patronidou

et al. 2016

Ecological Chemistry and Engineering S

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Abstract:The aim of this study was to evaluate the temporal variations of selected heavy metals level in anaerobic fermented and dewatered sewage sludge. Sewage sludge samples were collected in different seasons and years from three municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) located in Northern Greece, in Kavala (Kavala and Palio localities) and Drama (Drama locality) Prefectures. An investigation of the potential of sludge utilization in agriculture was performed, based on the comparison of average total heavy metal concentrations and of chromium species (hexavalent, trivalent) concentrations with the allowed values according to the Council Directive 86/278/EEC and Greek national legislation (Joint Cabinet Decision 80568/4225/91) guidelines. In this regard, all the investigated heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, Hg) and chromium species Cr(VI) and Cr(III) have average concentrations (dry matter weight) well below the legislated thresholds for soil application, as following: 2.12 mg kg -1 Cd; 103.7 mg kg -1 Cr; 136.4 mg kg -1 Cu; < 0.2 mg kg -1 Hg; 29.1 mg kg -1 Ni; 62.0 mg kg -1 Pb; 1253.2 mg kg -1 Zn; 1.56 mg kg -1 Cr(VI) and 115.7 mg kg -1 Cr(III). Values of relative standard deviation (RSD) indicate a low or moderate temporal variability for domestic-related metals Zn (10.3-14.7%), Pb (27.9-44.5%) and Cu (33.5-34.2%), and high variability for the metals of mixed origin or predominantly resulted from commercial activities, such as Ni (42.4-50.7%), Cd (44.3-85.5%) and Cr (58.2-102.0%). For some elements the seasonal occurrence pattern is the same for Kavala and Palio sludge, as following: a) Cd and Cr: spring>summer>winter; b) Cu, Ni and Pb: winter>spring>summer. On average, in summer months (dry season) metal concentrations are lower than in spring and winter (wet seasons), with the exception of Zn. For Kavala and Palio the results demonstrate that the increased number of inhabitants (almost doubled) in summer time due to tourism does not influence the metal levels in sludge. Comparing the results obtained for similar spring-summerwinter sequences in 2007 and 2010/11 and for the spring season in 2007, 2008 and 2010, it can be noticed that, in general, the average heavy metal contents show an increasing tendency towards the last year. In all the measurement periods, the Palio sludge had the highest metal contents and Kavala sludge the lowest, leading to the conclusion that the WWTP operating process rather than population has a significant effect upon the heavy metal content of sludge. Cr(VI)/Cr(total) concentration ratios are higher for Kavala sludge in the majority of sampling campaigns, followed by Drama and Palio sludge. The metals which present moderate to strong positive correlation have common origin, which could be a domestic-commercial mixed source.

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Section: Temporal Variations Of Sludge Metal Contentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal variability of sewage sludge heavy metal content from Greek wastewater treatment plants

Spanos

Ene

Patronidou

et al. 2016

Ecological Chemistry and Engineering S

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“…Chromium (Cr) is a common heavy metal contaminant widely derived from smelting, electroplating, leather tanning, and chemical manufacturing, and is highly toxic for organisms [6]. Therefore, the presence of Cr in wastewater could negatively affect microbial activities and microbial community structures, as well as the performance of biological treatment systems [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Cr(VI) is the most toxic among chromium species, and can easily penetrate cells and react with intracellular substances to affect the activity of microorganisms [8]. The biological treatment system of WWTPs is vulnerable to wastewater containing Cr(VI), resulting in the effluent quality not meeting the discharge standard [7]. It has been Water 2017, 9, 909 2 of 11 reported that nitrifying bacteria was more sensitive than heterotrophic bacteria to the toxicity of Cr(VI), and a Cr(VI) concentration of 0.5 mg L −1 caused significant inhibition of the nitrification process (up to 74% decrease in ammonia removal efficiency) [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subsequently, Fang et al [2] studied the long-term effects (52-d systematic investigation) of a low concentration of Cr(VI) (0.3-0.8 mg L −1 ) on the P removal performance of a granule-based EBPR system, and found that a high Cr(VI) concentration (0.5 mg L −1 ) could significantly inhibit P removal; filamentous bacteria overgrew, and eventually sludge bulking occurred in long-term Cr (VI) loading. The discrepancy in results of Cr(VI) effects on microbial metabolic activities could be attributed both to metal speciation [12] and the types of assays used [10], which played an important role when comparing toxicity expressions by different studies [7]. Nevertheless, most of the above investigations studied the short-term and long-term toxicity of Cr(VI) on EBPR system, data from which cannot shed light on the likelihood of the long-term stable operation of a simple nitrifying activated sludge system.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Unraveling the Long-Term Effects of Cr(VI) on the Performance and Microbial Community of Nitrifying Activated Sludge System

Wang

Dai

Zhang

et al. 2017

Water

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Abstract:The long-term effects of different influent Cr(VI) concentrations (0-0.5 mg L −1 ) on the nitrification activities and microbial community structures of nitrifying activated sludge system were investigated in this study. Results showed that the performance of ammonia oxidation was significantly inhibited, and the effluent concentration of ammonia nitrogen (NH 4 + -N) increased markedly when the influent Cr(VI) loading was equal or greater than 0.2 mg L −1 . The specific oxygen utilization rate (SOUR), specific ammonium oxidation rate (SAOR), and specific nitrite oxidation rate (SNOR) of the system decreased from 53.24, 6.31, and 7.33 mg N g −1 VSS h −1 to 18.17, 1.68, and 2.88 mg N g −1 VSS h −1 , respectively, with an increase of Cr(VI) concentration from 0 to 0.5 mg L −1 . The protein/polysaccharide (PN/PS) ratio increased with the increasing Cr(VI) concentration, indicating that excessive PN secreted by microorganisms was conducive to resisting the toxicity of Cr(VI). High-throughput sequencing revealed that the relative abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrospira) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (Nitrosomonas and Nitrosospira) all decreased with the increasing Cr(VI) concentration, and ammonia-oxidizing bacteria were more sensitive to heavy metal toxicity than nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. The activities of nitrifying activated sludge system could not be completely recovered after a 30-d recovery process.

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“…Although biochemical reaction rates may roughly double with temperature increase by 10 °C (Rittman and McCarty 2001), microorganisms function at an optimum performance at a specific temperature range (Prescott et al, 2002). Temperature has been shown to affect the reduction rate of Cr(VI) (and hence chromium toxicity to Escherichia coli (Shen and Wang, 1994)), while in general, the optimum Cr(VI) resistance and reduction in microorganisms has been determined to be between 30-36 °C (Shen and Wang, 1994;Ishibachi et al, 1990;Wang and Xiao, 1995;Krauter et al, 1996;Vaiopoulou and Gikas 2012). Bioaccumulation of heavy metals has been determined to maximize at 25 °C and 30 °C for Cu(II) and Cd(II), respectively, by Pseudomonas putida (Uslu et al, 2011) and at 30 °C, 25 °C and 30 °C for Cd(II), Pb(II) and Cu(II), respectively, by Rhizophus arrhizus (Uslu et al, 2003).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of single and combined effects of Zn, Cu and temperature on microbial growth

2014

Global NEST Journal

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The purpose of the present study is to investigate the single and joint effect of zinc and copper to the growth pattern of the metal tolerant species of Arthrobacter sp. JM018. The results showed that, both, Zn and Cu at concentrations between 1 to 10 μM stimulated the growth of the above microorganism at 35 °C. Stimulation was reduced with the increase of Zn concentration, while the opposite phenomenon was observed for copper. On the other hand, similar concentrations of joint Zn and Cu resulted to slight growth inhibition, indicating antagonism between the studied heavy metals. Experiments with the same microorganism at 20 °C and 35 °C, at metal free and 10 μM Zn, indicated that the stimulatory effect of zinc was significantly more pronounced at lower temperatures. The latter is indicative of the strong role of temperature on the expression of heavy metals to microorganisms.

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Effects of chromium on activated sludge and on the performance of wastewater treatment plants: A review

Cited by 217 publications

References 111 publications

Temporal variability of sewage sludge heavy metal content from Greek wastewater treatment plants

Temporal variability of sewage sludge heavy metal content from Greek wastewater treatment plants

Unraveling the Long-Term Effects of Cr(VI) on the Performance and Microbial Community of Nitrifying Activated Sludge System

The influence of single and combined effects of Zn, Cu and temperature on microbial growth

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