Hazards from Wastes

 Biological agents:
o Presence of pathogens like Vibrio cholerae due to fecal matter contamination
o Vector mediated: mosquitoes, flies, rats etc. population increases with the
accumulation of organic waste materials
 Chemical pollutants:
o These are mostly xenobiotics, don’t degrade over time - recalcitrant, keep on
accumulating as it goes up through the food chain – biomagnification
 DDT accumulation in body fat, accumulation in sea-birds beyond toxic
level resulted in fragile eggs
o Biotransformation may convert relatively non-toxic form into a toxic form
o Types:
 Heavy metals
 Halogenated organic compounds
 Oils and hydrocarbons from crude oils
 Cyanides etc.
o Aquatic animal toxicity, carcinogenicity, bioaccumulation, persistence of
these harmful chemicals are of major concerns
 Physical pollutants:
o Smoak, radiation, smog, dust, abnormal humidity and temperature, sound
pollution etc.
 Use of cleaner technologies and using biotechnology to minimize the existing
hazards is required

Waste treatments
 Solid waste
o Biodegradable
 Incineration
 Anaerobic digestion
 Landfill Method
o Area selected far away from locality
o Suitable pits are dug
o Waste is sorted, may undergo mechanical
pulverization or incineration as pretreatment process
o Waste undergone pretreatment filled in man-made pit
o Two methods
 Cell emplacement method
 2.5 deep cell dug
  Garbage can be filled in single or
multilayered. Each day’s waste
compacted and covered with soil. For
multilayered disposal the final soil layer
should be 60-90cm deep
 Trench method
 Long trenches are dug
 Garbage filled
 Covered with soil
 Only 20% of the dug soil is used to cover the
garbage, remaining soil will have to be
transferred in some place else otherwise
ground level will be raised
o Methane leak, potential fire hazard, foul odour, can be
used to collect biogas
o The toxic chemicals released may not favour with the
growth of plants in land-fill sites
o Non-biodegradable
 recycling
 Liquid waste
o Eutrophication: increased microbial/mainly algal growth in lakes due to
presence of higher concentration of inorganic nutrients washed into it due
to the excessive use of fertilizers
 Choke the river, presence of chemicals may increase the
temperature, too much microbial growth depletes dioxygen
concentration to toxic level for natural flora and fauna leading to
more pollution
o Waste water treatment:
 Pretreatment:
 It is a screening step for floating particles and heavy solids
 Grits and heavy solids allowed to settle down
 Floating solids removed by screening
 Separated solids may undergo grinding before their disposal
 Necessary for
o Preventing the clogging of pipeline
o Damage to pump
 Primary treatment:
 Settling tanks used – radial, vertical and horizontal flow type
 15-45 minutes residence time using reduced water flow
 Chemical coagulant may be added
 70% settling of suspended solids
 BOD drops by 40%
  The effluent after primary treatment is called settled sewage

 Secondary treatment:
 Digestion of the organic matter present in settled sewage
using aerobic or anaerobic process
 Aerobic process
o Fixed film reactors
 Trickling filter digestors
 Settled sewage trickles down the filter
 Rectangular filter, 3-meter-deep, made
up of crushed rock, ceramic bricks etc.
microorganisms are present in a biofilm
(Aggregate of microorganisms in which
cells that are frequently embedded
within a self-produced matrix of
extracellular polymeric substances)
 Biofilms produced on the surface of the
crushed rocks
 With time biofilm thickens and then
peeled off and removed from the filter
along with treated sewage
 Treated sewage taken to
sedimentation tank – biofilm and other
solid particles settle down – settled
solids are called humus sludge
 Rotating biological contactors
 Set of discs positioned vertically to the
direction of water flow, discs are partially
submerged
 As water flows, the discs rotate
 Biofilm on the surface of the discs.
Microbes present on the biofilm come in
contact with both contaminated water
and air as the disc rotates
o Dispersed growth digesters
 Microbes distributed throughout the sewage
being treated
 Large scale oxidation
 Waste water flows in, treated water moves to
large ponds – water flow is very slow, most
organic matter settle down along with microbial
flocs – activated sludge
  One part returned to the digester vessel to
maintain the microbial population
 Anaerobic process
o Treatment of sewage
 Carried out in septic tanks
 Modern digesters have to chambers, in the
man chamber actual digestion takes place, in
the second chamber sedimentation of the
treated organic matter takes place
 Efficiency increased by
 By using solid support to retain the
biomass
 Recycling the biomass
o Treatment of sludge
 Sludge can be obtained from primary or
secondary treatments including activated
sludge
 Treatment of these sludge is necessary to
reduce toxicity before dumping them in a
landfill to minimize hazard
 Two component system
 Digester tank
o Sludge fed here, temp
maintained at 35-40 C
o Organic matter anaerobically
digested
 Storage tank
o Digested organic matter
compacted
 Gaseous waste
o Biofilters
 Solid support system
 Peat used a solid support layer, gas passed through it.
Microbes present on the surface of the solid filter degrade
the pollutants present in the gas
 Two phase system
 Solid and gas phase separated by a membrane
 Degrading microbes are present on the liquid side of the
membrane
 Gaseous pollutants enter the liquid through the membrane
and broken down during the entry by the microbes
  Degraded components are stored in the liquid component of
the filter

Microbes involved in waste water treatment

 Aerobic digestion:
o Bacteria
 Removes 85-90% BOD after primary treatment
 109 cells/mL
 Surface attachment and floc formation
o Zoogloea ramigera secretes complex
polysaccharides leading to biofilm production which
degrades various organic compounds
o It also involved in floc formation
 Oxidation: Pseudomonas sp., Escherichia sp. etc. involved
 Nitrification: protein digestion releases ammonium ions –
highly toxic to aquatic flora and fauna, nitrifying bacteria –
Nitrosomans and Nitrobacter convert it to less toxic form
nitrate. Nitrate on the other hand leads to eutrophication
which causes another problem. High concentration of nitrate
in drinking water leads to blue baby syndrome
 Denitrification: Alcaligenes sp., Micrococcus sp., etc.
convert nitrate to dinitrogen and release back to the
atmosphere
o Strictly anaerobic
o Produces some oxides as biproduct
o Fungi – present in biofilms and flocs, removal of nitrogen, phosphorus and
other nutrients
o Protozoa
 Flagellates: most common type found
 Ciliates: most diverse group, Vorticella most often found in flocs of
activated sludge
 Amoebal forms
 Help in floc formation by converting smaller particles into larger one
by feeding on nutrients and bacteria, help in sedimentation
o Virus: feed on pathogenic bacteria
 Anaerobic digestion
o Uses sulphate as terminal electron acceptor to oxidize organic matter
o SO42- reduced to S
o Desulphovibrio
 Denitrifying bacteria
o Uses NO3-
o Reduces it to N2
 o Thiobacillus denitrificans, Micrococcus denitrificans
 Methanogenic bacteria
o Hydrolysis > Acidogenesis > Acetogenesis > Methanogenesis
o Complex biopolymers broken down to monomers by hydrolysis
o Monomeric organic compounds converted to short chain carboxylic acid,
aldehyde or alcohol forms
o Acidogenesis intermediates and products attacked by acetogenic bacteria
o Acetogenesis product acetic acid, CO2 and H2
o CO2 as terminal electron acceptor – reduced to CH4 by methanogens
o Reactions
 biomass + H2O → monomers + H2
 C6H12O6 + 2H2 → 2CH3CH2COOH + 2H2O
 C6H12O6 → 2CH3CH2OH + 2CO2
 CH3CH2COO- + 3H2O → CH3COO- + H+ + HCO3- + 3H2
 CH3CH2OH + 2H2O → CH3COO- + 2H2 + H+
 CH3COOH → CH4 + CO2
 2CH3CH2OH + CO2 → 2CH3COOH + CH4
 CH3OH → CH4 + H2O
 CO2 + 4H2 → CH4 + 2H2O
o Microbes
 Acetogenic bacteria
 Syntrophobacter wolinii, propionate decomposer
 Syntrophomonos wolfei, butyrate decomposer
 Clostridium sp., Lactobacillus sp., are acid formers
 Methanogenic bacteria
 Methanobacterium, methanobacillus, methanococcus
etc.
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