Treatability studies with granular activated carbon (GAC) and sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system for textile wastewater containing direct dyes

The GAC-SBR efficiency was decreased with the increase of dyestuff concentration or the decrease of bio-sludge concentration. The system showed the highest removal efficiency with synthetic textile wastewater (STWW) containing 40 mg/L direct red 23 or direct blue 201 under MLSS of 3,000 mg/L and hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 7.5 days. But, the effluent NO(3)(-) was higher than that of the influent. Direct red 23 was more effective than direct blue 201 to repress the GAC-SBR system efficiency. The dyes removal efficiency of the system with STWW containing direct red 23 was reduced by 30% with the increase of direct red 23 from 40 mg/L to 160 mg/L. The system with raw textile wastewater (TWW) showed quite low BOD(5) TKN and dye removal efficiencies of only 64.7+/-4.9% and 50.2+/-6.9%, respectively. But its' efficiencies could be increased by adding carbon sources (BOD(5)). The dye removal efficiency with TWW was increased by 30% and 20% by adding glucose (TWW+glucose) or Thai rice noodle wastewater (TWW+TRNWW), respectively. SRT of the systems were 28+/-1 days and 31+/-2 days with TWW+glucose and TWW+TRNWW, respectively.     

Biological removal of cyanide compounds from electroplating wastewater (EPWW) by sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system

Biological treatment system especially, sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system could not be applied to treat the raw electroplating wastewater (EPWW) due to the low organic matter concentration of 10+/-3 mg-BOD5/L and toxic of high cyanide concentration of 23.0+/-2.2 mg-CN/L. However, EPWW could be used as the nitrogen source for the bio-sludge of SBR system. And 10% of EPWW (the final cyanide concentration of 2.3+/-0.2 mg/L) was most suitable to supplement into the wastewater as the nitrogen source. SBR system showed the highest COD, BOD5, TKN and cyanide removal efficiencies of 79+/-2%, 85+/-3%, 49.0+/-2.1% and 97.7+/-0.7%, respectively with 4-times diluted Thai-rice noodle wastewater (TRNWW) containing 10% EPWW and 138 mg/L NH4Cl (BOD5: TN of 100:10) at SRT of 72+/-13 days (under organic and cyanide loadings of 0.40 kg-BOD5/m3 d and 0.0023 kg-CN/m3 d, respectively). However, the effluent ammonia was still high of 22.6+/-0.4 mg-N/L while the effluent nitrate and nitrite was only 9.9+/-0.4 and 1.2+/-0.9 mg-N/L, respectively. And SVI and effluent SS of the system were higher than 95 and 75 mg/L, respectively.     

Effect of bio-sludge concentration on the efficiency of sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system to treat wastewater containing Pband Ni

The removal efficiency of sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system with synthetic industrial estate wastewater (SIEWW) containing Ni²⁺ or Pb²⁺ was increased with the increase of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS). But, the sludge volume index (SVI) of the system was increased up to higher than 100 mL/g under MLSS of up to 4000 mg/L. Also, the effluent NO₃⁻ was decreased with the increase of MLSS. The heavy metals (Ni²⁺ or Pb²⁺), BOD₅, COD and TKN removal efficiencies of SBR system with SIEWW containing 5 mg/L heavy metal (Ni²⁺ or Pb²⁺) under MLSS of 3000 mg/L were 83–85%, 96–97%, 95–96% and 83–94%, respectively. The increase of heavy metal (Ni²⁺ or Pb²⁺) concentrations of SIEWW from 5 to 50 mg/L were not significantly effected to both COD and BOD₅ removal efficiencies (they were reduced by only 4–5%), but they were strongly effected to both TKN and heavy metals removal efficiencies (they were reduced by 15 and 20–30%, respectively). Both Ni²⁺ and Pb²⁺ could repress the growth of both nitrification and denitrification bacteria. And Ni²⁺ was more effective than Pb²⁺ to reduce the heavy metals removal efficiency. The SBR system could be applied to treat the industrial estate wastewater (IEWW) containing both Pb²⁺ and Ni²⁺ even the heavy metals concentrations was up to 5 mg/L, but the removal efficiency was quite low and excess bio-sludge did not produce. However, the system efficiency could be increased with the increase of BOD₅ concentration of the wastewater. The Pb²⁺, Ni²⁺, COD, BOD₅ and TKN removal efficiencies of the system with IEWW containing 500 mg/L BOD₅, 5 mg/L Ni²⁺ and 5 mg/L Pb²⁺ under HRT of 3 days were 85.68 ± 0.31%, 87.03 ± 0.21%, 86.0 ± 0.5%, 94.04 ± 0.4% and 90.5 ± 0.9%, respectively. And the effluent SRT, SS and SVI of the system were 44.7 ± 0.6 days, 150 ± 6 mg/L and 100 mL/g, respectively.