Practical applications in environmental

biotechnology

Introduction
Wastewater treatment processes (WWTP) can

be considered the largest industry in terms of

volumes of raw material treated
Industrial expansion and urban population
growth have increased the amount and
diversity of wastewater generate
The WWTP has become part of a production
process, e.g. for fresh water reuse purpose

Wastewater treatment

Activated sludge process

Most widely used aerobic suspension wastewater
treatment system
1 treated effluent introduced into an aeration tank
Rapid development of microorganisms is
stimulated by reintroduction of settled sludge (i.e.
activated sludge)
The microbial suspension decomposes and
utilizes the waste organic matters

Activated sludge process (cont)

process dealing with the treatment of

sewage and industrial wastewaters.

Sludge process is strictly aerobic
Aerobic source : Atmospheric air or pure
oxygen
Aeration tank suspended-growth reactor
containing microbial aggregates (flocs) of
microorganisms termed the activated sludge

1) Attached growth or fixed system

- Organisms attached to some inert media like
rocks or plastic.
2) Suspended growth
- Organisms are suspended in the treatment
basin fluid. This fluid is commonly called the
mixed liquor.

Attached Growth or Fixed Film

Reactors

Trickling Filters

Suspended Growth
Process

Consists of a reactor called the

- aeration tank
- a settling tank
- solid recycle : from the settler to the
aeration
tank
- sludge wasting line

Characteristics of Activated
Sludge

Microbial ecology
2 crucial characteristics
i) wide variety of microorganisms
- e.g. prokaryotes (bacteria), eukaryotes
(protozoa, crustacean, nematodes and rotifer),
bacteriophage and fungi.
ii) -most are held in flocs by naturally produced
organic polymers and electrostatic forces

Primary consumers of organic wastes

heterotrophic bacteria (dominant

community)
Majority of the bacterial are Gramnegative e.g. genera Pseudomonas,
Arthrobacter, Comamonas, Lophomonas,
Zoogloea etc.
Other bacteria: Micrococcus, Arthrobacter,
Coryneform bacteria, Mycobacteria and
Sphaerotilus spp.

Protozoa serve as an indicator of process

performance.
Rotifers, nematodes and other
multicellular forms roles in process not
obvious
Bacterial virus or phage role not well
documented
Some bacteria e.g. Zooglea ramigera
produce slimes that held the microbial
biomass together, forming flocs
These flocs are removed from suspension
by settling
A portion of the settled sludge is
recirculated back to the aeration tank

However, the effectiveness of sludge settling

depends on the microbial composition which is

affected by Food to Microorganisms Ratio and
toxicity of the wastewater

Plug flow
original or conventional activated sludge

systems in which the wastewater enters at

one end and exits through the other
Water/sludge mixture moving constantly
through an aeration tank
Along the flow is a gradient in substrate
concentration and oxygen demand

Step-aeration
Also called step feeding (a more accurate

descriptor), developed to circumvent some of

the problems of plug-flow approach
Improves the concerning O2 demand
Keep O2 demand uniform by adding the waste

water step wise

Produces well settling sludge

Complete-mix
CSTR with settling and recycle, evolved in

the 1950s
Simplest lay out for activated sludge
process
ultimate approach for spreading the
wastewater throughout the treatment
system
The disadvantage removal efficiency for an
individual organic compound is not as high
as in a well operating plug-flow system in
which high concentrations are not a problem

Contact stabiliztion
permits high efficiency treatment to occur in a

significantly reduced total reactor volume

Waste water is mixed in a contact reactor
short detention time (15-60 min) for oxidation
Enters a stabilization tank after the settler
tank (for volume saving)
Disadvantage requires substantially more

operational skill and attention

Activated sludge system

Has a selector before the aeration tank
To overcome the sludge bulking or sludge

that does not compact well in the settling

tank
Sludge bulking poor settling
characteristics in sedimentation tanks
caused by the growth filamentous bacteria
and algae.
Selector change or select the ecology of
the activated sludge system towards
organisms with good settling characteristic

Thank You