Petrochemical wastewater treatment with a pilot-scale bioaugmented biological treatment system

In solving the deterioration of biological treatment system treating petrochemical wastewater under low temperatures, bioaugmentation technology was adopted by delivering engineering bacteria into a pilot-scale two-stage anoxic-oxic (A/O) process based on previous lab-scale study. Experimental results showed that when the concentrations of COD and NH4+-N of the influent were 370~910 mg/L and 10~70 mg/L, the corresponding average concentrations of those of effluent were about 80 mg/L and 8 mg/L respectively, which was better than the Level I criteria of the Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard (GB8978-1996). According to GC-MS analysis of the effluents from both the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and the pilot system, there were 68 kinds of persistent organic pollutants in the WWTP effluent, while there were only 32 in that of the pilot system. In addition, the amount of the organics in the effluent of the pilot system reduced by almost 50% compared to that of the WWTP. As a whole, after bioaugmentation, the organic removal efficiency of the wastewater treatment system obviously in- creased.

Microbial community study in a petrochemical industry wastewater treatment system by PCR-DGGE

To improve the efficiency of petrochemical wastewater purification, the relationship between bacterial community structure and pollutants loading/degrading rates in A/O process for petrochemical wastewater treatment was investigated by denaturing gradient gel eleetrophoresis （DGGE） of the 16S rRNA gene fragments amplified by polymerase chain reaction （PCR）. Results show that while the influent COD and NH4^＋ -N concentrations are 425.92 -560 mg/L and 64 - 100 mg/L respectively, the corresponding average concentrations of the effluent are 160 mg/L and 55 mg/L, which are 1. 6 and 3.6 times more than the national standards respectively. It demonstrates that the performance of pollutants removal process is inefficient. The analysis of PCR-DGGE profile indicates that the bacterial community structure of the activated sludge in A/O system is species-rich but unstable, and the highest and the lowest similarity coefficients are 36% and 6. 25% respectively, which shows that remarkable community structure evolution exists in the system. The variation of bacterial community structure and pollutants loading influences the removal efficiency of pollutants obviously, and relatively stable com- munity structure leads to the stable operational performance of biological wastewater treatment system.

Applicability of anoxic-oxic process in treating petrochemical wastewater

To explore the applicability of anoxic-oxic (A/O) activated sludge process for petrochemical wastewater treatment,the relationship between bacterial community structure and pollutants loading/removal efficiencies was investigated by gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry (GC-MS),polymerase chain reaction-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE) and other conventional techniques.It showed that when the concentrations of the influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) were 420～560mg/L and 64～100mg/L,respectively,the corresponding average effluent concentra-tions were 160mg/L and 55mg/L,which were 1.6 and 2.2times higher than those of the national standards in China,respectively,demonstrating the inefficient performances of A/O process.Analysis of GC-MS indicated that refractory pollutants were mainly removed by sludge adsorption,but not by biodegradation.PCR-DGGE profile analysis suggested that the biological system was species-rich,but there was apparent succession of the bacterial community structure in different locations of the A/O system.Variations of bacterial community structure and pollutant loadings had obvious influences on pollutants removal efficiencies.Thus,A/O process was inapplicable for the treatment of complicated petrochemical wastewater,and strategies such as the reinforcement of pre-treatment and two-stage A/O process were suggested.