Toxicity Reduction of Municipal Wastewater by Anaerobic-anoxic-oxic Process

Objective This study was conducted to optimize the operational parameters of anaerobic-anoxic-oxic (A(2)/O) processes to reduce the toxicity of municipal wastewater and evaluate its ability to reduce toxicity. Methods A luminescent bacterium toxicity bioassay was employed to assess the toxicity of influent and effluent of each reactor in the A(2)/O system. Results The optimum operational parameters for toxicity reduction were as follows: anaerobic hydraulic retention time (HRT) = 2.8 h, anoxic HRT = 2.8 h, aerobic HRT = 6.9 h, sludge retention time (SRT) = 15 days and internal recycle ratio (IRR) = 100%. An important toxicity reduction (%) was observed in the optimized A(2)/O process, even when the toluene concentration of the influent was 120.7 mg.L-1. Conclusions The toxicity of municipal wastewater was reduced significantly during the A(2)/O process. A(2)/O process can be used for toxicity reduction of municipal wastewater under toxic-shock loading.