Inhibitory effects of zinc on acidogenic-anaerobic biotreatment of wastewaters

Abstract

The inhibitory effects effects on the acidogenic-anaerobic biotreatment were studied by using anaerobic toxicity assay test and anaerobic sequencing batch reactor. Experiments were conducted in two phases : first phase with synthetic wastewater alone and second phase with synthetic wastewater containing nitrobenzene. Inhibition of bacterial activity was quantified by individual volatile fatty acids (VFAs) production. Removal efficiencies of nitrobenzene were almost 100% and 90% when zinc concentrations were 0 mg/l and 50 mg/l, respectively.