Wastewater biological treatment anaerobic

Figure 4.12. Comparison between aerobic and anaerobic wastewater biological treatment, a wastewater, b biomass content, c hydraulic retention time.

There are two methods of biological treatment aerobic and anaerobic (217). The aerobic systems use free oxygen dissolved in the wastewater to convert wastes in the presence of microorganisms to more microorganisms, energy required for their existence, and carbon dioxide. The anaerobic process occurs in the absence of free oxygen and converts the waste to methane and carbon dioxide, generally in deep tanks or basins, and can produce odor problems when sulfides or sulfates are present in the wastewater. 

Azo dye-containing wastewaters seems to be one of the most polluted wastewaters, which require efficient decolorization and subsequent aromatic amine metabolism. On the basis of the available literature, it can be concluded that anaerobic-aerobic SBR operations are quite convenient for the complete biodegradation of both azo dyes and their breakdown products. Nevertheless, like the other methods used for biological treatment, SBRs treating colored wastewaters have some limitations. Presence of forceful alternative electron acceptors such as nitrate and oxygen, availability of an electron donor, microorganisms, and cycle times of anaerobic and aerobic reaction phases can be evaluated as quite significant. 

For effective biological treatment of dye wastewater, immobilization of bacteria under aerobic anaerobic high-rate reactors should be given special attention. The main cause of effective treatment of these xenobiotics under immobilized condition in high rate reactors is the rapid facile reduction of these compounds to products of lower toxicity [68, 69]. Moreover, the immobilization of anaerobic bacteria and maintenance of a high concentration of biomass in the high rate reactors are factors that improve the tolerance of the anaerobic system to toxic substances [70, 71]. 

Isik M, Sponza DT (2006) Biological treatment of acid dyeing wastewater using a sequential anaerobic/aerobic reactor system. Enzyme Microb Technol 38 887-892... 

An H, Qian Y, Gu XS et al (1996) Biological treatment of dye wastewaters using an anaerobic-oxic system. Chemosphere 33 2533-2542... 

In any case the wastewater will finally be fed into rivers, lakes, or the sea thus some wastewater treatments have to be performed before the textile effluents are released either to the communal wastewater treatment plant (CWWT) or into the rivers, lakes, and so on. Normally physical and (bio-) chemical treatments (e.g., adjustment of pH, temperature, sedimentation, flocculation) are performed in the textile plant, while the following biological treatment (aerobic, anaerobic degradation) is performed either in the textile plant or in a CWWT. The site of the biological treatment is dependent on the location of the textile plant however, a biological treatment of textile effluents preceding release into surface water is state of the art. 

Aromatic amines can be introduced into the environment from different anthropogenic activities. They are often present in untreated wastewaters from dye industries [45-48] in particular, sul-fonated amines have been found in municipal biological treatment plants and sediments of rivers, formed likely through the cleavage of the azo bonds, induced by anaerobic reduction [49],... 

Biological treatment techniques anaerobic digestion processes, aerobic digestion processes, nitrification, denitrification, and central biological wastewater treatment. 

The initial assumption might be that a photobiological H2 process would not require any raw materials. However, any biological process requires water and an adequate supply of macronutrients (i.e., nitrogen and phosphorus) and possibly some supplemental micronutrients, depending upon what nutrients and minerals are already present in the water supply to the process. One method to reduce raw material costs would be to utilize the waste stream from another process. For example, effluent streams from wastewater treatment anaerobic digesters are nitrogen rich, and blowdown streams from power plants are relatively pure. 

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