Biotechnological Remediation of Shipboard Waste Effluents.
Abstract
Biotechnological principles were applied to optimize organic matter reduction in bioreactors treating greywater effluents on Navy ships. Greywater treatment requires a rapid and reliable reduction in organic matter. Our studies addressed microbial physiological state at near-zero growth rates; this is central to the success of this approach for biotechnological remediation. The approach was to use a simulated greywater to feed a laboratory-scale bioreactor operated under conditions of 100% biomass recycle. The physiological state of the microbial population was assessed under varying operating conditions (hydraulic residence time (HRT), inputs of toxic materials, temporal changes in substrate supply, and temperature. The experimental results proved that the organic compounds present in greywater can be biodegraded by microbes very rapidly (HRT <3 h). Surfactant biodegradation played a critical role in the performance of the bioreactor community, due to surfactant toxicity. The microbial community responded to or recovered from a variety of environmental perturbations, and maintained system performance. Many of these system properties are consequences of the unique physiological state that occurred in microbes at low substrate fluxes, in which moderate levels of biochemical activity are retained and the microbes express a broad variety of catabolic enzymes.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 26, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADA361499
Entities
People
- A. Konopka
- R. F. Turco
Organizations
- Purdue University