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Combined Physical-Chemical and Biological Treatment of Poorly Biodegradable Industrial Effluents

Abstract Effluents from small and medium sized chemical plants may contain significant amounts of poorly biodegradable aromatic compounds, which could negatively affect water quality and public health. This is a key environmental issue, particularly in areas where effluents are discharged into drinking water sources. Unfortunately, conventional biological treatment may not be able to meet discharge standards, and combined systems should be implemented. In this context, this paper presents experimental results on the application of a combined sequential ozonation-activated carbon-biological system to treat effluents containing chlorinated aromatic contaminants from chlorine based pulp bleaching. The experimental system consisted of an ozone bubble column reactor (0.3 dm3), an activated carbon fixed bed reactor (0.2 dm3), and an aerobic bioreactor (20 dm3). Ozone was produced from pure O2 using a generator rated at 2 mmol O3 h−1. The bleaching effluent was pretreated and fed into the aerated sequencing batch bioreactor containing preconditioned biological sludge (3–4 g VSS dm−3), and cultured for 24 h. Samples of raw and treated effluents were assayed for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC), total phenols, and adsorbable organic halogens (AOX), using standard techniques. The presence of potential genotoxic activity in untreated and treated samples was assessed using the Ames tests. Results show that biological treatment of raw samples could not remove mutagenic activity on its own. On the other hand, ozonation followed by activated carbon treatment and biological treatment successfully removed genotoxicity in all cases. Reductions in BOD, COD, TOC, AOX, and phenols by biological treatment increased when samples were pretreated with ozone/activated carbon.