Respirometry solutions for pharmaceutical wastewater industry - Chemical & Pharmaceuticals - Pharmaceuticals
A pharmaceutical company was interested in knowing whether a specific component, MCB, inhibited the biodegradation of other wastewater constituents. A series of respirometer tests was set up using identical mixtures of wastewater and return activated sludge (RAS) plus varying amounts of MCB. The OUR fingerprint of this wastewater includes a first peak of about 500 mg/L-hr within the first hour of contact that represents the oxidation of highly-biodegradable organic constituents. A second group of readily biodegradable constituents caused a second high OUR peak between one and two hours.
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The relative position of OUR curves suggests that this peak represented the biodegradation of the MCB test chemical. This second OUR peak was followed by oxidation of a slowly degrading group of organic constituents that were completely oxidized between five and seven hours of contact. Oxygen uptake between seven and thirteen hours represents the biodegradation of a final group of constituents - possibly nitrification — before the OUR returns to endogenous rates. The fact that the OUR returned to endogenous rates indicates that essentially all the organic constituents of the wastewater were degraded.
