Efficiency of Thermophilic Bacteria in Wastewater Treatment

摘要

The present work was carried out to assess the efficiency of thermophilic bacteria in wastewater treatment. A consortium offour thermophilic bacterial strains was used in this study. At 50 °C, the thermophilic consortium showed a very high efficiencyin removing total organic carbon (TOC), which reached around 79% in 60 h. Removal of phosphorous was relatively low at15.4%, while removal of nitrogen was about 83% in 60 h of incubation time. Dissolved oxygen was significantly decreasedfrom 3.43 ppm down to 0.13 ppm in the same period. The consortium of mesophilic bacteria grown at 37 °C showed a substantiallydifferent performance from the thermophilic consortium incubated at 50 °C. For example, after 60 h of incubationat 37 °C, only 58.5% of TOC, 13.2% of phosphorous and 75.9% of nitrogen were removed, respectively. Dissolved oxygenwas decreased from 3.43 ppm down to 0.28 ppm in the same period. Efficiency of removal rate by thermophilic conditionsis higher than the mesophilic conditions. Properties such as fast growth of thermophiles (compared to mesophiles) mayexplain the exceptional ability of these thermophilic organisms in waste removal.