Glucose Addition Enhanced the Advanced Treatment of Coking Wastewater

Biological processes have high removal efficiencies and low operational costs, but the secondary effluent of coking wastewater (CWW), even at a low concentration, is difficult for microorganisms to degrade directly. In this study, glucose was used as a carbon source and co-metabolic substrate for microbial acclimation in order to enhance the advanced treatment of coking wastewater (CWW). The removal performance of the pollutants, especially recalcitrant compounds, was studied and the changes in the microbial community structure after activated sludge acclimation were analyzed. The effect of glucose addition on the secondary biochemical effluent of coking wastewater (SBECW) treatment by the acclimated sludge was further studied by a comparison between the performance of two parallel reactors seeded with the acclimated sludge. Our results showed that the concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD), total organic carbon (TOC), and UV absorption at 254 nm (UV254) of the wastewater decreased in the acclimation process. Refractory organic matter, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and nitrogen-containing heterocyclics, in the SBECW was effectively degraded by the acclimated sludge. High-throughput sequencing revealed that microbes with a strong ability to degrade recalcitrant compounds were enriched after acclimation, such as Thauera (8.91%), Pseudomonas (3.35%), and Blastocatella (10.76%). Seeded with the acclimated sludge, the reactor with the glucose addition showed higher COD removal efficiencies than the control system without glucose addition (p < 0.05). Collectively, glucose addition enhanced the advanced treatment of coking wastewater (CWW).

Advances in treatment of coking wastewater – a state of art review

Coking wastewater poses a serious threat to the environment due to the presence of a wide spectrum of refractory substances such as phenolic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heterocyclic nitrogenous compounds. These toxic substances are difficult to treat using conventional treatment methods alone. In recent years much attention has been given to the effective treatment of coking wastewater. Thus, this review seeks to provide a brief overview of recent developments that have taken place in the treatment of coking wastewater. In addition, this article addresses the complexity and the problems associated with treatment followed by a discussion on biological methods with special focus on bioaugmentation. As coking wastewater is refractory in nature, some of the studies have been related to improving the biodegradability of wastewater. The final section focuses on the integrated treatment methods that have emerged as the best solution for tackling the highly unmanageable coking wastewater. Attention has also been given to emerging microwave technology which has tremendous potential for treatment of coking wastewater.

Kinetics of catalytic treatment of coking wastewater (COD, phenol and cyanide) using wet air oxidation

Coking wastewater (CWW) is known as a highly polluting effluent. This study deals with the degradation of pollutants in terms of COD, phenol and cyanide present in CWW using catalytic wet air oxidation (CWAO) process. CWAO was carried out in batch mode using various catalysts. The investigated operating parameters are initial pH (pH i ) 3–11, temperature (T) 100–160 °C, air partial pressure (p air) 2–6 MPa, catalyst mass loading (C w ) 2–5 g/L and treatment time (t R ) of 0–6 h. Among various catalysts, the copper chloride was proved to be best for degradation of pollutants. The optimum conditions were evaluated for the degradation of organic compounds as T 130 °C, p air 8.8 MPa, C w 3 g/L and t R = 6 h. The maximum percentage reduction of COD, phenol, and cyanide was achieved through experiment at T 160 °C, p air 12.2 MPa, C w 5 g/L and t R 6 h as 97.32%, 97.94% and 99.87%, respectively. The kinetics studies were also performed to evaluate the rate constant (k), and reaction order with respect to COD, phenol, CN, CW and p air.