Improvement of nutrients removal from domestic wastewater by activated-sludge encapsulation with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA)

Abstract Conventional activated-sludge (AS) technologies are deficient for nutrient removal because they require specific floc characteristics. Therefore, the encapsulated AS with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) will favor floc’s formation that removes nutrients. The applied method was based on monitoring the removal of organic matter and nutrients (NH4+, NO3-, NO2-, PO43-) from synthetic domestic wastewater using laboratory-scale AS. The experimental reactors were operated at 8 h as optimized Hydraulic Retention Time (HRT). The sludge characteristics evaluation was carried out through the Sludge Volumetric Index (SVI), Food/Microorganism ratio (F/M), and Mixed Liquor Volatile Suspended Solids (MLVSS). Other specific floc characteristics, such as zeta potential and effective diameter were also evaluated. The results showed that the encapsulated AS with PVA favors nitrogen and phosphorous removal up to 35% but it did not improve organic matter removal. In addition, encapsulated AS with PVA has the characteristics of filamentous sludge (F/M: 0.7 g COD g−1 MLVSS d−1) with good settleability conditions (SVI: 43 mL g−1 MLSVS h−1) and low zeta potential (ZP: -0.9 mV), which favors its separation from the liquid phase. In conclusion, the encapsulation of AS with PVA improves nutrient removal by improving floc characteristics.

• Publication year

  2019

• Venue

  Journal of Environmental Science and Health. Part A: Toxic/Hazardous Substances and Environmental Engineering

• Publication date

  2019-03-30

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Materials Science, Chemistry, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1080/10934529.2019.1592526PMID 30929568
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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