Monitoring and assessing variation of sewage quality and microbial functional groups in a trunk sewer line

Abstract

In this study, the variation of sewage quality was investigated and the active fraction of different microbial functional groups in biofilm was quantified in a 5.6-km trunk sewer line. The sewage quality including suspended solids, biochemical oxygen demand, total chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen, total Kjeldahl nitrogen, ammonia nitrogen, nitrite nitrogen, and nitrate nitrogen were measured and compared with the values in literatures. The results indicated that since the wastewater treatment plant was not operated at its full capacity, the concentrations of different compounds were lower compared with the values in literatures. The values of heterotrophic growth rate constant lay between 5.6 and 8.6 day^− 1. Its average value was 7.7 day^− 1. The values of heterotrophic lysis rate constant lay between 0.2 and 0.4 day^− 1. The active heterotrophic biomass in biofilm varied from 240 to 800 mg COD m^− 2 and average value was 497 mg COD m^− 2. The biofilm mass varied from 880 to 1,080 mg m^− 2. The percentage of heterotroph to biofilm mass fall within the range of 24.0–90.9% and average value was 52.9%. In the oxygen uptake rate batch tests, the biomass, growth rate constant, and lysis rate constant of autotroph could not be determined because the fraction of autotroph in biofilm was relatively few. It revealed that the degradation of organic matters, nitrification, and denitrification occurred in the trunk sewer line. But the results indicate that the condition seem favorable for nitrification.