The anionic surfactant linear alkylbenzene sulfonate (LAS) may inhibit soil microorganisms and may occur in agricultural soil through the application of sewage sludge. For five microbial parameters (microbial biomass C and the potentials of iron reduction, ammonium oxidation, dehydrogenase activity, and arylsulfatase activity), we compared the effects of aqueous LAS and LAS-spiked sewage sludge...

Mathematical modelling has proven to be very useful in process design, operation and optimisation. A recent trend in WWTP modelling is to include the different subunits in so-called plant-wide models rather than focusing on parts of the entire process. One example of a typical plant-wide model is the coupling of an upstream activated sludge plant (including primary settler, and secondary clarif...

This study examined a novel reuse of alum sludge, an inescapable by-product of drinking water treatment process when aluminium salt is added as a coagulant, as the main medium in a laboratory-scale multi-stage constructed wetland (CW) system for reject water treatment. Such reject water is a main concern in municipal wastewater treatment plant (MWWTP) for increasing the organic and nutrient loa...

The thermophilic, anaerobic, propionate-oxidizing bacterial populations present in the methanogenic granular sludge in a thermophilic (55 degrees C) upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactor were studied by cultivation and in situ hybridization analysis. For isolation of propionate-degrading microbes, primary enrichment was made with propionate as the sole energy source at 55 degrees C. After sev...

A novel bioleaching process, preincubation bioleaching (PB) has been recently developed in our laboratory for decontamination of heavy-metal-laden sewage sludge by removing the toxic low molecular weight organic acids using an isolated degradative yeast species. The objective of the present study was to optimize Fe2+ /solids content ratio required for removing heavy metals from sewage sludge by...

Various half-scale and lab-scale investigations have already shown that the disintegration of excess sludge is a possible pre-treatment to optimise anaerobic digestion. To verify these results, different methods of disintegration were investigated at a full-scale plant. Two stirred ball mills, a plant for oxidation with ozone, a lysate centrifuge and an ultrasonic homogeniser were applied. A po...

The aim of the experiment was to analyze the particular processes (biomass synthesis, oxidation, denitrification and accumulation) during carbon removal from wastewater. The experiment was carried out in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) in two series with different organic carbon compounds to nitrogen compounds ratio (COD/N). Organic carbon loading of activated sludge was 0.07 g COD/g·d. Organi...

Background Part-stream low-frequency ultrasound (LFUS) was one of the common practices for sludge disintegration in full-scale anaerobic digestion (AD) facilities. However, the effectiveness of part-stream LFUS treatment and its effect on AD microbiome have not been fully elucidated. Methods Here we testified the effectiveness of part-stream LFUS pretreatment by treating only a fraction of fe...

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas and its emission from municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) should be prevented. One way to do this is to promote the biological conversion of dissolved methane over stripping in aeration tanks. In this study, the well-established Activated Sludge Model n°1 (ASM1) and Benchmark Simulation Model n°1 (BSM1) were extended to study the influence of process...

The genus Comamonas contains species isolated from various environments, such as termite guts, wetlands, activated sludge, soil, humans, and fresh water. Here, we report the draft genome sequence of Comamonas thiooxydans strain S23(T) capable of oxidizing thiosulfate under mixotrophic growth conditions. Based upon draft genome sequencing, the genome is 5.3 Mb and encodes 4,767 proteins. The Com...