Biodegradability of terephthalic acid in terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Guan, Bao-hong | Wu, Zhong-biao | Wu, Zu-ceng | Xu, Gen-liang | Tan, Tia-nen

Affiliations: Department of Environmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

Abstract: As the characteristic pollutant, terephthalic acid(TA)was in charge of 40%–78% of the total COD of terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater(TPW-water). The studies on biodegradability of TA were conducted in a serial of activated sludge reactors with TPW-water. TA appeared to be readily biodegradable with removal efficiency over 96.5% under aerobic conditions, hardly biodegradable with removal efficiency below 10% under anoxic conditions and slowly biodegradable with a turnover between 31.4% and 56.0% under anaerobic conditions. TA also accounted for the majority of BOD in TPW-water. The process combined by anoxic, anaerobic and aerobic activated sludge reactor was suitable for TA degradation and TPW-water treatment. Further, the aerobic process was essentially much more effective than the anaerobic or anoxic one to degrade TA in TPW-water.

Keywords: terephthalic acid, biodegradability, bio-treatment, printing and dyeing wastewater, terylene artificial silk

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 296-301, 2003