Contributions to Online Measurement Systems for the investigation of Wastewater Toxicity on Activated Sludge

Contributions to Online Measurement Systems for the investigation of Wastewater Toxicity on Activated Sludge Contributions to Online Measurement Systems for the investigation of Wastewater Toxicity on Activated Sludge luận văn tốt nghiệp thạc sĩ

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VNU UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE Ferdinand Friedrichs CONTRIBUTIONS TO ONLINE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF WASTEWATER TOXICITY ON ACTIVATED SLUDGE PH.D THESIS IN CHEMISTRY Ha Noi – 2018 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VNU UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE Ferdinand Friedrichs CONTRIBUTIONS TO ONLINE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF WASTEWATER TOXICITY ON ACTIVATED SLUDGE Branch: Environmental Chemistry Code: 62440120 PH.D THESIS IN CHEMISTRY Supervisors: Assoc Prof Dr Do Quang Trung Prof Dr Dr Wolfgang Genthe Ha Noi – 2018 Acknowledgement First of all, I would like to thank both of my supervisors, Prof Dr Dr Genthe who gave me the chance to work for the AKIZ project in Vietnam as an employee of LAR Process Analysers AG, for giving me the chance to work on such an exciting project, any kind of support, inspiring discussions and arranging enough time to finalize the Ph.D thesis Many thanks to Prof Dr Do Quang Trung as my supervisor from the Vietnamese site from Vietnam National University I highly appreciate for giving me the opportunity to my Ph.D at the Vietnam National University VNU Many thanks for the support to finalizing my Ph.D subjects, to give me the chance to work on research projects with students from VNU and the interesting discussion related to my Ph.D thesis Secondly, many thanks to all my colleagues at LAR Process Analysers, the AKIZ team, and the members and students from VNU who supported during my time in Vietnam doing my Ph.D thesis Special thanks to my lab members Ms Huyen, Mr Nhan and Mrs Lanh for the support in the laboratory and the beautiful time spent together in Can Tho Also many thanks to the students from VNU Mr Bac, Ms Dung and Ms Lanh for coming to Can Tho to research at the AKIZ laboratory Many thanks to my colleagues from LAR Process Analysers AG for the support regarding technical issues related to the analysers and the interesting discussion related to the research topic Therefore I want to acknowledge Thomas, Rafael, Olga, Olaf, Winfried, Gerhard, and Agnes Many thanks to the project leader Prof Dr Rudolph as project leader and Dominic, Rene, Sandra and Mr Long for coordinating the AKIZ Project Last but not least, I would like to thank family and friends for their patience and care, especially to my wife Huyen, my son Nico Tri, and my daughter Lina Kim for keeping me in a good mood I Declaration I hereby declare that I have written the present thesis independently and without the use of others than the indicated sources Berlin, 20th June 2017 Signature: II Acknowledgement First of all, I would like to thank both of my supervisors, Prof Dr Dr Genthe who gave me the chance to work for the AKIZ project in Vietnam as an employee of LAR Process Analysers AG, for giving me the chance to work on such an exciting project, any kind of support, inspiring discussions and arranging enough time to finalize the Ph.D thesis Many thanks to Prof Dr Do Quang Trung as my supervisor from the Vietnamese site from Vietnam National University I highly appreciate for giving me the opportunity to my Ph.D at the Vietnam National University VNU Many thanks for the support to finalizing my Ph.D subjects, to give me the chance to work on research projects with students from VNU and the interesting discussion related to my Ph.D thesis At this point I would like to acknowledge Prof Dr mult, Rudolph as the leader of the AKIZ project, who always supported me, especially with the publication of scientific articles Secondly, many thanks to all my colleagues at LAR Process Analysers, the AKIZ team, and the members and students from VNU who supported during my time in Vietnam doing my Ph.D thesis Special thanks to my lab members Ms Huyen, Mr Nhan, Mr Huy and Mrs Lanh for the support in the laboratory and the beautiful time spent together in Can Tho Also many thanks to the students from VNU Mr Bac, Ms Dung and Ms Hanh for coming to Can Tho to research at the AKIZ laboratory Many thanks to my colleagues from LAR Process Analysers AG for the support regarding technical issues related to the analysers and the interesting discussion related to the research topic Therefore, I want to acknowledge Thomas, Rafael, Olga, Olaf, Winfried, Gerhard, and Agnes Many thanks to Dominic, Rene, Sandra and Mr Long for coordinating the AKIZ Project and their support Last but not least, I would like to thank family and friends for their patience and care, especially to my wife Huyen, my son Nico Tri, and my daughter Lina Kim for keeping me in a good mood Many thanks to my parents who always supported me during my studies and the entire life I Declaration I hereby declare that I have written the present thesis independently and without the use of others than the indicated sources Berlin, 16th April 2018 Signature: II Abstract Removal of nitrogen compounds and organic pollutants from wastewater is one of the essential issues in wastewater treatment Commonly applied for this treatment step is the activated-sludge process To guarantee a proper operation of this process, it is necessary to monitor the inhibitory effect of toxic substances on activated-sludge bacteria This is commonly done by the activated-sludge respiration-inhibition test But there is still a lack of knowledge, which parameters have an influence on the stability and sensitivity of the biological test In the literature, the inhibitory effects of single toxicants on activated sludge may vary up to three orders of magnitudes The aim of the study is to increase the sensitivity of toxicants on the activated-sludge respiration test to create an adjustable biosensor To this end, the research question is as follows: Which parameters have an influence on the sensitivity of the activated-sludge respiration-inhibitions test? The research question is answered through experiments using the international standardized activated-sludge respiration-inhibition test and the two online-respirometers NitriTox and Biomonitor of LAR Process Analysers AG To influence the sensitivity of these bio assays following parameters were investigated pH, temperature, oxygen concentration in the fermenter, incubation time, nutrient limitation and biomass concentration These experiments were realized with using Zn(II), Cu(II), Cr(VI) and 3,5 DCP as toxicants A series of experiments are described with this objective, and showed in each case, that the sensitivity of the bioassay could be varied by the investigated parameters The sensitization of the test organisms can be explained by altering the activity of the bacteria and also the speciation of the toxicants in the presence of the nutrient solution and its biological degradation products It is, therefore, possible to detect toxic pollutants in lower concentrations, which have an inhibiting effect on activated-sludge bacteria I expect that this new approach is applied to detect inhibiting substances in wastewater in lower concentrations to protect activated-sludge bacteria in a wastewater treatment plant more efficiently Additionally, a mobile laboratory was developed and assembled to conduct wastewater monitoring in seven industrial zones across the country Vietnam with toxicity as a critical III parameter The aim of the monitoring campaigns was to apply the online respiration inhibition respirometer NitriTox to a case study in which extend the activated-sludge process of industrial wastewater treatment plant are inhibited by toxic wastewaters in Vietnam The high necessity of monitoring the toxicity of industrial wastewater can be proved that toxic wastewater occurred in five of the seven tested industrial zones In conclusion, the NitriTox was applied successfully in the frame of the measurement campaigns in seven industrial zones in Vietnam IV LIST OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement I Declaration II Abstract III List of Abbrevations X List of Figures XI List of Tables XV Introduction 1 The Importance of the Topic Objectives The new Points of this Dissertation Chapter 1: Literature Review 1.1 Wastewater Treatment Plant Overview 1.1.1 Activated-Sludge Process 1.1.2 Nitrification 1.2 Toxicity Monitoring 1.2.1 Inhibition and Toxicity 1.2.2 Necessity of Toxicity Monitoring 1.2.3 Sum-Parameters in Water Monitoring 10 1.2.4 Sources of Heavy Metal Pollution 11 1.2.5 Toxicity Assessment Methods to Determine the Inhibition of Pollutants on Activated-Sludge Bacteria 12 1.2.6 Activated-Sludge Respiration-Inhibition Test 14 1.2.6.1 Offline Respiration-Inhibition Measurements 14 1.2.6.2 Online Respiration-inhibition Measurements 14 1.2.7 Comparison of the Toxicity-Assessment Methods used to determine the Inhibition of Pollutants on Activated-sludge Bacteria .17 1.2.8 Comparison of EC 50 Values of Activated-Sludge Inhibition-Test 19 1.2.8.1 Copper 19 V ... NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI VNU UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE Ferdinand Friedrichs CONTRIBUTIONS TO ONLINE MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF WASTEWATER TOXICITY ON ACTIVATED SLUDGE. .. Influence of Nutrient Solution on Biomonitor Measurements 50 2.4.4.2 Influence of the sludge concentration on Biomonitor Measurements 51 2.4.4.3 Influence of the ASR value on Biomonitor Measurements... over the respiration rate of the activated- sludge microorganisms The respiration rate of reference water is set to a toxicity of 0%, and the total inhibition of the respiration rate to 100% The