In-depth characterization of secondary effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant located in northern China for advanced treatment.

This study provided insight into the characterization of secondary effluent from a wastewater treatment plant located in northeastern China. The secondary effluent was separated into three fractions, the dissolved, the near-colloidal and the suspended, to study their individual characteristics. It revealed that most of the organics in the secondary effluent existed in the dissolved form, accounting for 78.1-86.5% of the total chemical oxygen demand and 82.6-86.6% of the total organic carbon. Results from the molecular weight distribution study further indicated that organics with MW < 1k Da constituted 56.3-62.7% of total organics. Moreover, the particle size distribution study suggested that particles between 2.0 and 6.8 μm in diameter made up 80.0% of the total suspended solids. Both biological oxygen demand/chemical oxygen demand and biological dissolved organic carbon/dissolved organic carbon were measured ranging from 0.2 to 0.3, suggesting the most secondary effluent organics were biologically refractory. This conclusion was further strengthened by the functional groups information obtained from the GC/MS (gas chromatography/mass spectrometry) analysis. The characteristics information revealed from this study will help the design and selection of water quality-specific tertiary treatment technologies for secondary effluent water purification and reuse.

[1]  F. Çiner,et al.  Tertiary treatment of a secondary effluent by the coupling of coagulation-flocculation-disinfection for irrigation reuse. , 2011 .

[2]  B. D. Tripathi,et al.  Application of ozone based treatments of secondary effluents. , 2011, Bioresource technology.

[3]  Liping Sun,et al.  Application of particle-size analysis in coagulation/flocculation for reclamation of a secondary effluent. , 2009, Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research.

[4]  Yongzhen Peng,et al.  Effects of influent C/N ratio, C/P ratio and volumetric exchange ratio on biological phosphorus removal in UniFed SBR process , 2008 .

[5]  J. Mouchel,et al.  Dissolved organic matter from treated effluent of a major wastewater treatment plant: characterization and influence on copper toxicity. , 2008, Chemosphere.

[6]  Yan-Xing Wang,et al.  Decolorization and COD removal of secondary yeast wastewater effluents by coagulation using aluminum sulfate , 2008 .

[7]  Jun Ma,et al.  Degradation characteristics of secondary effluent of domestic wastewater by combined process of ozonation and biofiltration. , 2008, Journal of hazardous materials.

[8]  S. Chuang,et al.  Improving the Removal of Anions by Coagulation and Dissolved Air Flotation in Wastewater Reclamation , 2006, Environmental technology.

[9]  M. Mohseni,et al.  Integrated ozone and biotreatment of pulp mill effluent and changes in biodegradability and molecular weight distribution of organic compounds. , 2005, Water Research.

[10]  M. Rulík,et al.  Determination of biodegradable dissolved organic carbon in waters: comparison of batch methods. , 2004, The Science of the total environment.

[11]  W. Ng,et al.  Treatability of organic fractions derived from secondary effluent by reverse osmosis membrane. , 2003, Water research.

[12]  T. Fukushima,et al.  Characterization of dissolved organic matter in effluents from wastewater treatment plants. , 2002, Water research.

[13]  M. Dignac,et al.  Fate of wastewater organic pollution during activated sludge treatment: nature of residual organic matter , 2000 .