Improving biodegradation potential of domestic wastewater by manipulating the size distribution of organic matter

Carbon source is a critical constraint on nutrient removal in domestic wastewater treatment.However,the functions of particulate organic matter（POM） and some organics with high molecular weight（HMW） are overlooked in the conventional process,as they cannot be directly assimilated into cells during microbial metabolism.This further aggravates the problem of carbon source shortage and thus affects the effluent quality.Therefore,to better characterize organic matter（OM） based MW distribution,microfiltration/ultrafiltration/nanofiltration（MF/UF/NF） membranes were used in parallel to fractionate OM,which obtained seven fractions.Hydrolysis acidification（HA） was adopted to manipulate the MW distribution of dissolved organic matter（DOM） and further explore the correlation between molecular size and biodegradability.Results showed that HA pretreatment of wastewater not only promoted transformation from POM to DOM,but also boosted biodegradability.After 8 hr of HA,the concentration of dissolved organic carbon（DOC） increased by 65%,from the initial value of20.25 to 33.48 mg/L,and the biodegradability index（BOD5（biochemical oxygen demand）/SCOD（soluble chemical oxygen demand）） increased from 0.52 to 0.74.Using MW distribution analysis and composition optimization,a new understanding on the characteristics of organics in wastewater was obtained,which is of importance to solving low C/N wastewater treatment in engineering practice.

Wastewater degradation by iron/copper nanoparticles and the microorganism growth rate

Nowadays, trends in wastewater treatment by zero-valent iron（ZVI） were turned to use bimetallic NZVI particles by planting another metal onto the ZVI surface to increase its reactivity. Nano size zero-valent iron/copper（NZVI/Cu0） bimetallic particles were synthesized in order to examine its toxicity effects on the wastewater microbial life, kinetics of phosphorus, ammonia stripping and the reduction of chemical oxygen demand（COD）.Various concentrations of NZVI/Cu0 and operation conditions both aerobic and anaerobic were investigated and compared with pure NZVI experiment. The results showed that addition10 mg/L of NZVI/Cu0 significantly increased the numbers of bacteria colonies under anaerobic condition, conversely it inhibited bacteria activity with the presence of oxygen. Furthermore,the impact of nanoparticles on ammonia stripping and phosphorus removal was also linked to the emitted iron ions electrons. It was found that dosing high concentration of bimetallic NZVI/Cu0 has a negative effect on ammonia stripping regardless of the aeration condition. In comparison to control, dosing only 10 mg/L NZVI/Cu0, the phosphorus removal increased sharply both under aerobic and anaerobic conditions, these outcomes were obtained as a result of complete dissolution of bimetallic nanoparticles which formed copper-iron oxides components that are attributed to increasing the phosphorus adsorption rate.

Elucidating the removal mechanism of N,N-dimethyldithiocarbamate in an anaerobic-anoxic-oxic activated sludge system

N,N-Dimethyldithiocarbamate （DMDTC） is a typical precursor of N-nitrosodimethylamine （NDMA）. Based on separate hydrolysis, sorption and biodegradation studies of DMDTC, a laboratory-scale anaerobic-anoxic-oxic （AAO） system was established to investigate the removal mechanism of DMDTC in this nutrient removal biological treatment system. DMDTC hydrolyzed easily in water solution under either acidic conditions or strong alkaline conditions, and dimethylamine （DMA） was the main hydrolysate. Under anaerobic, anoxic or oxic conditions, DMDTC was biodegraded and completely mineralized. Furthermore, DMA was the main intermediate in DMDTC biodegradation. In the AAO system, the optimal conditions for both nutrient and DMDTC removal were hydraulic retention time 8 hr, sludge retention time 20 day, mixed-liquor return ratio 3：1 and sludge return ratio 1：1. Under these conditions, the removal efficiency of DMDTC reached 99.5%; the removal efficiencies of chemical organic demand, ammonium nitrogen, total nitrogen and total phosphorus were 90%, 98%, 81% and 93%, respectively. Biodegradation is the dominant mechanism for DMDTC removal in the AAO system, which was elucidated as consisting of two steps： first, DMDTC is transformed to DMA in the anaerobic and anoxic units, and then DMA is mineralized to CO2 and NH3 in the anoxic and oxic units. The mineralization of DMDTC in the biological treatment system can effectively avoid the formation of NDMA during subsequent disinfection processes.