Abstract
In this research, a retrofitting process, which consists of a pretreatment system (coagulation) for dye wastewater combined with a biological nutrient system (MLE process using media), for a sewage treatment plant that has to treat dye wastewater efficiently with domestic wastewater were developed and a pilot plant was operated for verifying adoptability and performance of the developed advanced process for dye wastewater. From the results of the pilot plant operation, BOD 52.9%, $COD_{Cr}$ 55.9%, and color 71.3% were removed in pretreatment of coagulation process and the biodegradability of dye wastewater was improved to $0.32{\sim}0.59BOD/COD_{Cr}$ of the coagulated wastewater from $0.29{\sim}0.43BOD/COD_{Cr}$ of the raw dye wastewater. The final effluent concentrations were BOD of 8 mg/L, $COD_{Cr}$ of 43 mg/L, $COD_{Mn}$ of 18 mg/L, T-N of 8 mg/L, and T-P of 1.3 mg/L, respectively. Color was removed from 1655 to 468 unit by coagulation and then to 123 unit by MLE process. The HPLC analysis of aromatic amines in wastewater showed that decolorization was achieved by cometabolism while aromatic amines were produced by cleavage of azo bonds under anaerobic conditions and these products were removed in an aerobic tank subsequently. Nitrification rates of attached and suspended microorganisms were evaluated comparatively and the acclimating conditions of bacteria on media were validated by the scanning electron microscope.