Characterization of the dissolved organic matter in sewage effluent of sequence batch reactor: the impact of carbon source

Abstract

Dissolved organic matter (DOM) transformation in sequence batch reactor (SBR) fed with carbon sources of different biodegradability was investigated. During the biologic degradation process, the low molecular weight (MW) fraction (<1 kDa) gradually decreased, while the refractory compounds with higher aromaticity were aggregated. Size exclusion chromatography (SEC) and fluorescence of excitation emission matrices (EEM) demonstrated that more biopolymers (polysaccharides or proteins) and humic-like substances were presented in the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) extracted from the SBR fed with sodium acetate or glucose, while the EPS from SBR fed with slowly biodegradable dissolved organic carbon (DOC) substrate-starch had relatively less biopolymers. Comparing the EfOM in sewage effluent of three SBRs, the effluent from SBR fed with starch is more aromatic. Organic carbon with MW>1 kDa as well as the hydrophobic fraction in DOM gradually increased with the carbon sources changing from sodium acetate to glucose and starch. The DOC fractionation and the EEM all demonstrated that EfOM from the effluent of the SBR fed with starch contained more fulvic acid-like substances comparing with the SBR fed with sodium acetate and glucose.

Keywords

effluent organic matter (EfOM) / extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) / molecular weight distribution (MWD) / hydrophobic / hydrophilic / excitation emission matrices (EEM)

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