Abstract
Tannins occur commonly in the wastewaters from forestry, plant medicine, paper and leather industries. The treatment of this kind of wastewaters, including settling and biodegradation, is usually difficult because tannins are highly soluble in water and would inhibit the growth of microorganisms in activated sludge. The objective of this study is to investigate biodegradability of tannin-containing wastewaters, so as to characterize the pollution properties of such wastewaters and provide a reference for their biological treatment in wastewater treatment plants. The research was typified by using the wastewater collected from vegetable tanning process in leather industry. A model was developed to describe the activated sludge process, and the biodegradation kinetics of vegetable tanning wastewater (VET wastewater) was studied. It was found that the biodegradability of tannin-containing wastewater varies heavily with the content of tannins in wastewater. The biodegradation of VET wastewater with tannin content around 4,900 mg/l occurred inefficiently due to the inhibition of tannins to the activated sludge process, and only 34.7% of biodegradation extent was reached in 14 days of incubation. The optimal biodegradability of VET wastewater was observed when its tannin content was diluted to 490 mg/l, where the COD and tannin removals reached 51.3% and 45.1% respectively in 6 days. Hence, it is suggested that a proper control of tannin content is necessary to achieve an effective biodegradation of tannin-containing wastewaters in wastewater treatment plants.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arana J, Tello RE, Dona RJM, Herrera MJA, Gonzalez DO, Perez PJ (2001) High concentrated phenolic wastewater treatment by the Photo-Fenton reaction—mechanism study by FTIR-ATR. Chemosphere 44:1017–1023
Bhat TK, Singh B, Sharma OP (1998) Microbial degradation of tannins—a current perspective. Biodegradation 9:343–357
Cassano A, Adzet J, Molinari R, Buonomenna MG, Roig J, Drioli E (2003) Membrane treatment by nanofiltration of exhausted vegetable tannin liquids from the leather industry. Water Res 37:2426–2434
Etiegni L, Wakoli M, Ofosu AK (1999) Design of an efficient tannin extract effluent treatment system. Water Sci Technol 39:321–324
Gao ZB, Shu CY (2001) Treatment of wastewater from leather-making industry. Chemistry Industry, Beijing
Gebara F (1999) Activated sludge biofilm wastewater treatment system. Water Res 33:230–238
Guellil A, Thomas F, Block JC, Bersillon JL, Ginestet P (2001) Transfer of organic matter between wastewater and activated sludge flocs. Water Res 35:143–150
Guo WC, Wu QH (1998) The biodegradability evaluation of wastewater based on BOD5/CODcr. Environ Sci Technol (Chinese) 82:39–41
Huang W, Shi B, Ni JR, Borthwick AGL (2005) Biodegradation of valonia tannin by Endomyces Shq 14. J Soc Leather Technol Chem 89:28–33
Hufschmid A, Becker VSK, Strawczynski A, Vioget P, Parra S, Peringer P, Pulgarin C (2003) BOD5 measurements of water presenting inhibitory CU2+—implications in using of BOD to evaluate biodegradability of industry wastewaters. Chemosphere 50:171–176
Liao XP, Shi B (2005) Selective removal of tannins from medicinal plant extracts using a collagen fiber adsorbent. J Sci Food Agric 85:1285–1291
Madhan B, Sreeram KJ, Sharli A, Rao JR, Nair BU (2005) An integrated approach for the treatment of vegetable tanning wastewaters. J Soc Leather Technol Chem 89:9–14
Makkar HPS, Blummel M, Borowy NK, Becker K (1993) Gravimetric determination of tannins and their correlations with chemical and protein precipitation methods. J Sci Food Agric 61:161–165
Mao HZ, Smith DW (1995) A mechanistic model for assessing biodegradability of complex wastewaters. Water Res 29:1957–1975
Marsal A, Garcia EA, Ribosa I, Cot J, Manich A (2003) Removal of vegetable extracts by the use of activated clays. J Soc Leather Technol Chem 87:219–222
Newman KA, Morel FMM, Stolzenbach KD (1990) Settling and coagulation characteristics of fluorescent particles determined by flow cytometry and fluorometry. Environ Sci Technol 24:506–513
Rao JR, Nair BU, Sharli A, Madhan B (2003) An approach for the treatment of vegetable tan liquor containing hydrolysable tannins. J Am Leather Chem Assoc 98:381–387
Ren S (2004) Assessing wastewater toxicity to activated sludge: recent research and developments. Environ Int 30:1151–1164
Scalbert A (1991) Antimicrobial properties of tannins. Phytochemistry 30:3875–3883
Scholz W, Lucas M (2003) Techno-economic evaluation of membrane filtration for the recovery and re-use of tanning chemicals. Water Res 37:1859–1867
Shi B, Di Y (2000) Vegetable polyphenol. Science Press, Beijing
Svitelska GV, Gallios GP, Zouboulis AI (2004) Sonochemical decomposition of natural polyphenolic compound. Chemosphere 56:981–987
Xi DL, Liu XY, Sun YS (2001) Environment control. Higher Education Press, Beijing
Acknowledgments
This project is financially supported by The Research Foundation for Doctoral Program of Higher Education (20050610095), The Key Program of Natural Science Found of China (20536030) and National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (20325619).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
He, Q., Yao, K., Sun, D. et al. Biodegradability of tannin-containing wastewater from leather industry. Biodegradation 18, 465–472 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-006-9079-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10532-006-9079-1