Alvarado A, West S, Abbt-Braun G, Horn H. Hydrolysis of particulate organic matter from municipal wastewater under aerobic treatment.
Chemosphere 2021;
263:128329. [PMID:
33297259 DOI:
10.1016/j.chemosphere.2020.128329]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2019] [Revised: 08/11/2020] [Accepted: 09/10/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Hydrolysis of particulate organic matter is known to be a limiting step in biological wastewater treatment. In this work, we used an experimental set-up, which allowed the parallel observation of hydrolysis product formation on the one side and utilization on the other side. The hydrolysis products are characterized by using size exclusion chromatography with online carbon and UV (254 nm) detection. The used particles (size: 25-250 μm) originated from municipal wastewater. Here, it is shown that the concentration of high molecular weight organic matter increases over the first three days. During this time, bacteria grow and produce the required enzymes to perform the further degradation. The oxygen utilization rate (OUR) on the other side continuously develops, confirming the presence of easily biodegradable organic matter. In parallel, the amount of bacteria and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) undergoes a certain dynamics, which was visualized by using confocal laser scanning images.
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