Unhairing effluents treated by an activated sludge system

Journal of Hazardous Materials
G VidalC Bornhardt

Abstract

Leather tannery effluents are a source of severe environmental impacts. In particular, the unhairing stage, belonging to beamhouse processes, generates a significantly toxic, alkaline wastewater with high concentrations of organic matter, sulphides, suspended solids and salts. The objective of this work was to evaluate the biodegradability and toxicity of diluted unhairing wastewater after being treated by an activated sludge (AS) system. The biomass activity of the AS was also evaluated. The AS system was fed for 180 days with diluted unhairing effluent. The operation strategy increased the organic load rate (OLR) from 0.23 to 2.98 g COD/l per day while the HRT was variable until operation day 113, when the HRT was near 1.1 days. Results show that when the organic load rate was lower than 2 g COD/l per day, the biological oxygen demand (BOD5) efficiency was 99%, whereas the chemical oxygen demand (COD) was around 80%. The reactor operation was stable until 2 g COD/l per day. For higher values, the system was less efficient (COD and BOD5 removal rate lower than 40%) and the relation of food/micro-organisms (F/M) was higher than 0.15. Biomass evaluations through oxygen utilisation coefficients show that the specific oxygen uptak...Continue Reading

References

Aug 25, 2004·Water Research·Tatjana TislerAndreja Drolc

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Citations

Jul 5, 2011·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Najwa MlaikTahar Mechichi
Jul 25, 2008·Bioresource Technology·C A PapadimitriouG P Sakellaropoulos
Aug 9, 2012·Journal of Environmental Science and Health. Part A, Toxic/hazardous Substances & Environmental Engineering·Mayra JarpaGladys Vidal
Feb 27, 2010·Water Environment Research : a Research Publication of the Water Environment Federation·Mercè VilasecaMartí Crespi

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