Filamentous bacteria are a normal and necessary component of the activated sludge wastewater treatment process, but the overgrowth of filamentous bacteria results in foaming and bulking associated disruptions. Bacteriophages, or phages, were investigated for their potential to reduce the titer of foaming bacteria in a mixed-microbial activated sludge matrix. Foaming-associated filamentous bacte...

Background Leachate is one of the most problems present in landfills, mainly due to large production and the ability to cause serious environmental damages next to these areas. An activated sludge process is commonly used for biodegrading organic contaminants in wastewater using a mixed population of microorganisms. This technology is consolidated for wastewater treatment, and recently has been...

Two respirometric principles are combined in an experimental setup based on a laboratory scale batch reactor and applied to the characterization of activated sludge and wastewater. In the first respirometric principle the temporary disturbance of the dissolved oxygen concentration in the reactor is used to estimate the respiration rate. To this end, the oxygen mass-transfer must be calculated a...

Sludge bulking is the most common solids settling problem in wastewater treatment plants, which is caused by the excessive growth of filamentous bacteria extending outside the flocs, resulting in decreasing the wastewater treatment efficiency and deteriorating the water quality in the effluent. Previous studies using molecular techniques have been widely used from the microbiological aspects, w...

Municipal wastewater treatment plants consume much energy and manpower, are expensive to run, and generate sludge and treated wastewater whilst removing pollutants through specific treatment regimes. The sustainable development of the wastewater treatment industry is therefore challenging, and a comprehensive evaluation method is needed for assessing the sustainability of different wastewater t...

The wastewater discharged by poultry slaughterhouse industries are characterized mainly by high biochemical oxygen demand, high suspended solids and complex mixture of fats, proteins and fibers requiring systematic treatment prior to disposal. In this study, the performance of an upflow anaerobic filter reactor for treating Indian poultry slaughterhouse wastewater under low upflow velocity of 1...

EPA recently concluded limited testing of agricultural sites in Alabama where sewage sludge was applied from a local wastewater treatment plant that receives wastewater from numerous industrial sources, including facilities that manufacture and use perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and other perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs). The results from this limited testing indicated elevated levels of PFCs in ...

Organic chemicals discharged in urban wastewater from industrial and domestic sources, or those entering through atmospheric deposition onto paved areas via surface run-off, are predominantly lipophilic in nature and therefore become concentrated in sewage sludge, with potential implications for the agricultural use of sludge as a soil improver. Biodegradation occurs to varying degrees during w...

Occurrence and removal efficiencies of fifteen pharmaceuticals were investigated in a conventional municipal wastewater treatment plant in Michigan. Concentrations of these pharmaceuticals were determined in both wastewater and sludge phases by a high-performance liquid chromatograph coupled to a tandem mass spectrometer. Detailed mass balance analysis was conducted during the whole treatment p...

Wastewater treatment reduces environmental contamination by removing gross solids and mitigating the effects of pollution. Treatment also reduces the number of indicator organisms and pathogens. In this work, the fates of two coliform bacteria, Escherichia coli and Serratia marcescens, were analyzed in an activated sludge process to determine the main mechanisms involved in the reduction of pat...