Toxic effect of pharmaceuticals on methanogenesis

2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 335-340 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Fountoulakis ◽  
P. Drillia ◽  
K. Stamatelatou ◽  
G. Lyberatos

Pharmaceuticals present in sewage may inhibit the biological processes in a sewage treatment plant. In this work, the toxic-effect of six pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine, sulfamethoxazole, propranolol hydrochloride, diclofenac sodium, ofloxacin and clofibric acid) on the anaerobic digestion process is assessed. Acetoclastic methanogenes are the most sensitive group of microorganisms participating in the anaerobic digestion process. Appropriate toxicity tests for these microorganisms were then based on assessing the impact of pharmaceuticals on the specific methanogenic activity (SMA) of the anaerobic biomass. The toxicity was expressed by the IC80 and IC50 values, i.e. the concentration at which bioactivity was 80% and 50% of the control, respectively. Results showed that the pharmaceuticals tested caused a mild inhibition to the methanogenes in most cases, related directly to the tendency of the compounds to adsorb on the anaerobic biomass.

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergio Peres ◽  
Marina Rebeca Monteiro ◽  
Micheline Lima Ferreira ◽  
Adalberto Freire do Nascimento Junior ◽  
Maria de Los Angeles Perez Fernandez Palh

2017 ◽  
pp. 558-563
Author(s):  
Svetlana Ofverstrom ◽  
Ieva Sapkaite ◽  
Regimantas Dauknys

In this study, the impact of iron and aluminium salts addition on anaerobic digestion process was investigated. Mixture of primary and activated sludge collected at Vilnius wastewater treatment plant in Lithuania was digested under laboratory conditions by using anaerobic digester (W8, Amfield, UK). To compare the relative digestibility of iron-dosed (Fe-dosed)and aliuminium-iron-dosed (Al-Fe-dosed) sludge with un-dosed sludge three continuous experiments were made. Results showed that iron and aliuminium negatively impacted anaerobic digestion process by reducing the volume of biogas produced. Fe-dosed sludge produced 20-50% less biogas and Al-Fe-dosed sludge produced 30-40% less biogas in comparison to the same un-dosed sludge. VS destruction decreased during dosing of Fe or/and Al salt. Biogas composition was not measured during the experiments.


2010 ◽  
Vol 113-116 ◽  
pp. 450-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Zhi Chi ◽  
Yu You Li ◽  
Min Ji ◽  
Hong Qiang ◽  
Heng Wei Deng ◽  
...  

This paper presents an experimental study over 204 days on anaerobic degradation of thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) from a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The experiments were conducted under thermophilic (55°C) and mesophilic (35°C) condition, respectively, by using the semi-continuous flow completely mixed reactors. The influent total solids (TS), hydraulic retention time (HRT) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) loading levels were around 4%, 30 days and 1.67 kg-CODCr•m-3•d-1 , respectively. During the opration period, the thermophilic anaerobic digestion process (TADP) and the mesophilic anaerobic digestion process (MADP) were stable and well-functioned without ammonia inhibition. Particulate organic matters reduction of TADP was superior to that of MADP. This result implies that TADP has higher sludge reduction efficiency than MADP. According to the simulated chemical formula of TWAS, C5.85H9.75O3.96N, and the stoichiometric equation, the methane content and the ammonia yield in the anaerobic process could be calculated, which were consistent with the experimental results. The methane yield of TADP was a little higher than that of MADP. The statistical mean values of methane content for TADP and MADP were 60.97% and 62.38%, respectively.According to paired t-test, there was a significant difference in methane content between TADP and MADP(α=0.01, n=62). Compared with the mesophilic digested sludge, the dewaterability of thermophilic digested sludge was lower.


2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 545-552 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Yasui ◽  
K. Komatsu ◽  
R. Goel ◽  
R. Matsuhashi ◽  
A. Ohashi ◽  
...  

To assess the impact on greenhouse gas emission, different process schemes for municipal sludge treatment were evaluated based on the data from pilot-scale experiments and review of annual operation reports. A modified anaerobic digestion process with partial ozonation of digested sludge to improve biological degradability and the conventional anaerobic digestion process were compared with respect to the energy demand in each process schemes. Options for beneficial use of biogas included (1) application of biogas for power production and (2) recovery as an alternative to natural gas utilization. The analysis indicated that the partial ozonation process with power production led to minimal greenhouse gas emission because the extra energy production from this scheme was expected to cover all of the energy demand for the plant operation. Moreover, the final amount of dewatered sludge cake was only 40% of that expected from the conventional process, this significantly minimizes the potential for greenhouse gas emission in the subsequent sludge incineration processes.


2012 ◽  
Vol 66 (7) ◽  
pp. 1565-1573 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Hierholtzer ◽  
J. C. Akunna

Sodium is a known process inhibitor in anaerobic systems and impacts on methanogens through an increase of osmotic pressure or complete dehydration of microorganisms. In this study, a combination of experimental and modelling approaches has been employed to determine and simulate sodium inhibition on the anaerobic digestion process. The ADM1, which has been successfully used in modelling anaerobic processes, has been modified to include an extra inhibition function that considers the effect of sodium on acetoclastic methanogens and the impact on biogas production and composition. A non-competitive inhibition function was added to the rate of acetate uptake for the model to take into account sodium toxicity. Experimental studies consisted of both batch and reactor tests to obtain parameters for model calibration and validation. The calibrated model was used to predict the effect of ammonia nitrogen on sodium toxicity. It was found that relatively low sodium levels can bring about significant levels of process inhibition in the presence of high levels of ammonia. On the other hand, where the concentration of ammonia is relatively low, the tolerance threshold for sodium ions increases. Hence, care must be taken in the use of sodium hydroxide for pH adjustment during anaerobic digestion of protein-rich substrates.


2005 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 491-499 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy T. Kraemer ◽  
David M. Bagley

Abstract Upgrading conventional single-stage mesophilic anaerobic digestion to an advanced digestion technology can increase sludge stability, reduce pathogen content, increase biogas production, and also increase ammonia concentrations recycled back to the liquid treatment train. Limited information is available to assess whether the higher ammonia recycle loads from an anaerobic sludge digestion upgrade would lead to higher discharge effluent ammonia concentrations. Biowin, a commercially available wastewater treatment plant simulation package, was used to predict the effects of anaerobic digestion upgrades on the liquid train performance, especially effluent ammonia concentrations. A factorial analysis indicated that the influent total Kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN) and influent alkalinity each had a 50-fold larger influence on the effluent NH3 concentration than either the ambient temperature, liquid train SRT or anaerobic digestion efficiency. Dynamic simulations indicated that the diurnal variation in effluent NH3 concentration was 9 times higher than the increase due to higher digester VSR. Higher recycle NH3 loads caused by upgrades to advanced digestion techniques can likely be adequately managed by scheduling dewatering to coincide with periods of low influent TKN load and ensuring sufficient alkalinity for nitrification.


1986 ◽  
Vol 18 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 239-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung Ryong Ha ◽  
Dwang Ho Lee ◽  
Sang Eun Lee

Laboratory scale experiments were conducted to develop a mathematical model for the anaerobic digestion of a mixture of night soil and septic tank sludge. The optimum mixing ratio by volume between night soil and septic tank sludge was found to be 7:3. Due to the high solids content in the influent waste, mixed-liquor volatile suspended solids (MLVSS) was not considered to be a proper parameter for biomass concentration, therefore, the active biomass concentration was estimated based on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) concentration in the reactor. The weight ratio between acidogenic bacteria and methanogenic bacteria in the mixed culture of a well-operated anaerobic digester was approximately 3:2. The proposed model indicates that the amount of volatile acid produced and the gas production rate can be expressed as a function of hydraulic residence time (HRT). The kinetic constants of the two phases of the anaerobic digestion process were determined, and a computer was used to simulate results using the proposed model for the various operating parameters, such as BOD5 and volatile acid concentrations in effluent, biomass concentrations and gas production rates. These were consistent with the experimental data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 16840-16845
Author(s):  
Camilo Garcia-Tenorio ◽  
Mihaela Sbarciog ◽  
Eduardo Mojica-Nava ◽  
Alain Vande Wouwer

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