Utilization of Microorganisms Immobilized with Magnetic Particles for Sewage and Wastewater Treatment

Abstract

A novel method for sewage and wastewater treatment using microorganisms immobilized with magnetic particles was developed with a proposal of the treatment process. This process has the characteristic of having microorganisms in effluent recovered magnetically. Batch and continuous experiments for phenol removal were carried out using microorganisms immobilized with ferromagnetic particles after cultivation in the presence of phenol. In the continuous experiment, almost 100% of phenol in feed water was removed for at least 4.0 days, during which a developed apparatus, mainly consisting of a reactor and a separator with magnet, was operated without difficulty. In the mixed system of the immobilized microorganisms and activated sludge, phenol and easily biodegradable substance were removed simultaneously and efficiently. Thus the addition of the immobilized microorganisms to a reactor with activated sludge was considered to be able to endow the reactor system with further capability for treatment. Furthermore, it became apparent that a mixture of three kinds of microorganisms, immobilized with ferromagnetic particles and feeble magnetic particles respectively and without magnetic particles, could remove the objective substrate, and that the microorganisms immobilized with magnetic particles could be recovered using a magnet and a High Gradient Magnetic Filtration (HGMF) equipment. These results show that a new process, in which the microorganisms in a reactor would become controllable and be maintained in high concentration, could be developed.

Magnetic Water Treatment in Environmental Management: A Review of the Recent Advances and Future Perspectives

“…Studies have demonstrated that using MW for irrigation can improve water productivity. In addition, MW is reportedly effective at preventing and removing scale deposits in pipes and water containing structures [9,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39].…”

“…Safety, compatibility and simplicity, environmentally friendliness, low operating cost and not proven harmful effects are the main advantages of EMFs in these fields [6,16,17,32,35,[40][41][42][43][44][45]. In addition to the antimicrobial and antibacterial effects of EMFs on wastewater treatment, these fields have different characteristics which can be used to enhance a WWT process: modifying the physical and chemical properties of water molecules and other elements, precipitating sludge, removing phosphorus and organic compounds from solutions.…”

Treatment of methylene blue-containing wastewater using microorganisms supported on granular activated carbon under packed column operation

“…The main advantages in the use of immobilized cells in comparison with suspended ones include the retention in the reactor of higher concentrations of micro-organisms, protection of cells against toxic substances and prevention of suspended bacterial biomass in the effluent. Moreover, immobilization of microbial cells provides, in general, high degradation efficiency and good operational stability (Ozaki et al 1991).…”

Influência de campo magnético na fermentação alcoólica descontínua

“…No campo do tratamento de águas residuárias, existem estudos da influência da aplicação de campo magnético no processo de lodo ativado (SAKAI et al, 1991;HATTORI et al, 2001;2002) e na biodegradação de fenol (OSAKI et al, 1991;RAJA RAO et al, 1997). Nesses estudos, os resultados avaliam a influência do campo magnético sobre o crescimento da biomassa, a viabilidade celular, a velocidade de conversão do substrato, a velocidade de produção etc., para diferentes condições de processo relacionadas à concentração celular e de substrato, intensidade de campo magnético e a forma de contato entre o campo magnético e o meio líquido.…”