Hydrazine is rarely found as an intermediate in microbial nitrogen conversions. In this study the conversion of hydrazine by the anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) culture, in which hydrazine has been proposed as an intermediate, was investigated. This study demonstrated the biological nature of hydrazine conversion by the Anammox culture. In batch cultures with hydrazine it was observed th...

In this work, a strain of anaerobic pentachlorophenol (PCP) degrader, Desulfitobacterium frappieri PCP-1, was used to augment a mixed bacterial community of an anaerobic upflow sludge bed reactor degrading PCP. To estimate the efficiency of augmentation, the population of PCP-1 in the reactor was enumerated by a competitive PCR technique. The PCP-1 strain appeared to compete well with other mic...

This study investigated the effect of heat-alkaline treatment (HAT) at pH 11 and 60 °C on volatile fatty acid (VFA) production and protein degradation in excess sludge, soluble and insoluble proteins, and pure cultures. In addition, quantification of bacteria present in the sludge was also examined. Experimental results showed that following acid fermentation under pH 7 and 37 °C, HAT enhanced ...

In this study, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB)--a biodegradable plastics material--was produced by activated sludge performing enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) in batch experiments under anaerobic, aerobic and anaerobic/aerobic conditions. Under anaerobic conditions, the maximum PHB content of the dry biomass was 28.8% by weight, while under aerobic or anaerobic/aerobic conditions, the m...

Over 99% of phenol was effectively degraded in an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor at 55 degrees C with 40 h of hydraulic retention time (HRT) for a wastewater containing 630 mg/L of phenol, corresponding to 1500 mg/L of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and a loading rate of 0.9 g-COD/L/d. The maximum specific methanogenic activity (SMA) of the phenol-degrading sludge was 0.09 g-CH4-C...

Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) may deteriorate or fail during low organic carbon loading periods. Polyphosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) in EBPR were acclimated under both high and low organic carbon conditions, and then dynamics of polymers in typical cycles, anaerobic conditions with excess organic carbons, and endogenous respiration conditions were examined. After long-te...

Autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion (ATAD) is a promising process for sewage sludge stabilization. Batch experiments were conducted on sewage sludge collected from a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Shanghai, China, to evaluate the effectiveness of the ATAD system by determining changes in volatile suspended solids (VSSs) and to study its microbial diversity by denaturing gradient...

Recovery of biodegradable plastics from activated sludge is a promising sustainable technology. In this study, polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) – a biodegradable plastics material was produced by activated sludge performing enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) in batch experiments under anaerobic, aerobic and anaerobic/aerobic conditions. Under anaerobic conditions, the PHB content of 28.8% o...

A study was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of Activated Sludge Process (ASP) for the treatment of tannery wastewater and to develop a simple design criteria under local conditions. A bench scale model comprising of an aeration tank and final clarifier was used for this purpose. The model was operated continuously for 267 days. Settled tannery wastewater was used as influent to the aerati...

Pyrethroid insecticides have been widely detected in sediments at concentrations that can cause toxicity to aquatic organisms. Desorption rates play an important role in determining the bioavailability of hydrophobic organic compounds, such as pyrethroids, because these compounds are more likely to be sorbed to solids in the environment, and times to reach sorptive equilibrium can be long. In t...