Wastewater treatment using microbial enzymatic mixture

Abstract

The effectiveness of the use of microbial enzymes as a wastewater treatment method depends on factors such as temperature, pressure, and oxygenation level, among others. However, very few scientific studies have provided real data regarding the evaluation of the applicability of this type of treatment. This research was therefore carried out to evaluate the effect of temperature and aerobic treatment time on the level of treatment of wastewater pollutants, with a mixture composed of enzymes and aerobic microorganisms under environmental conditions in the city of Huancayo, Peru. For this purpose, synthetic wastewater samples were prepared, considering a value of COD_initial= 800 mg L^-1. One group of experiments was conducted at a 20°C controlled temperature and another group without control. The following average kinetic constants were obtained as results (K_o= 1.662 d^-1, Kc=2.53 mg COD mg^-1 VSS) when the T°= 20°C. For the experiments where the T° was not controlled, the average constants were: K_o= 1.217 d^-1, K_c=1.24 mg COD mg^-1 SSV. We observed from the measurements that the pollutant removal was adjusted to the kinetic model proposed by Orozco, and the biomass production was adjusted to the stoichiometric equation of biomass production with endogenous respiration. Therefore, we concluded that the effect of temperature control and treatment time on the level of purification caused by the microbial enzymatic product is significant at a 95% confidence level.

Keywords: aerobic purification, biomass, digesting bacteria, kinetics, microorganisms.