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Articles

Biodegradability evaluation of pollutants in acrylonitrile wastewaters based on particle size distribution

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Pages 2792-2798 | Received 16 Jul 2013, Accepted 03 Dec 2013, Published online: 04 Jul 2014
 

Abstract

Acrylonitrile wastewaters (ANWs) treatment is a big trouble for chemical fiber industry in China, and there was not yet an effective biological treatment technology for ANWs due to the lack of detailed analysis on the biodegradability of pollutants. In this work, two typical point-source ANWs, acrylonitrile synthesis wastewater (ANSW), and acrylonitrile polymerization wastewater (ANPW) were fractionated by gradient membrane separation method based on the pollutants particle size distribution (PSD). Moreover, biochemical oxygen demand/chemical oxygen demand (COD) ratios, oxygen uptake respirometric tests, dehydrogenase activity tests, and simulated aeration tests were integrated to evaluate the biodegradability of PSD-based pollutants in ANWs. The results showed that most COD were from dissolved fractions in both of ANSW and ANPW. For ANSW, the soluble fractions had greater biodegradation potential than particulate and colloidal fractions. Colloidal fractions are easier to be biodegraded than particulate and soluble fractions in ANPW. The simulated aerobic tests showed that, only 54.72 and 21.62% of COD was removed from ANSW and ANPW, respectively. It indicated that activated sludge treatment process was inadequate to ANWs. The correlations between PSD-based pollutants and their biodegradability of ANWs can be used to guide the development of ANWs treatment technologies.

Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 20,876,175) and the Science Foundation of China University of Petroleum, Beijing (No. KYJJ2012-03-01).

Notes

Presented at 2013 International Environmental Engineering Conference and Annual Meeting of the Korean Society of Environmental Engineers (IEEC 2013) Seoul, Korea, June 11–13, 2013

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