• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.1128-1133
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• 2010

The diversity and abundance of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) in activated sludge were compared using PCR-DGGE and real-time PCR assays. Activated sludge samples were collected from five different types of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) mainly treating textile, paper, food, and livestock wastewater or domestic sewage. The composition of total bacteria determined by PCR-DGGE was highly diverse between the samples, whereas the community of AOB was similar across all the investigated activated sludge. Total bacterial numbers and AOB numbers in the aerated mixed liquor were in the range of $1.8{\times}10^{10}$ to $3.8{\times}10^{12}$ and $1.7{\times}10^6$ to $2.7{\times}10^{10}$ copies/l, respectively. Activated sludge from livestock, textile, and sewage treating WWTPs contained relatively high amoA gene copies (more than $10^5$ copies/l), whereas activated sludge from food and paper WWTPs revealed a low number of the amoA gene (less than $10^3$ copies/l). The value of the amoA gene copy effectively showed the difference in composition of bacteria in different activated sludge samples and this was better than the measurement with the AOB 16S rRNA or total 16S rRNA gene. These results suggest that the quantification of the amoA gene can help monitor AOB and ammonia oxidation in WWTPs.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.29 no.9
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• pp.1434-1443
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• 2019

Although chemical oxygen demand (COD) is an important issue for wastewater treatment, COD reduction with microalgae has been less studied compared to nitrogen or phosphorus removal. COD removal is not efficient in conventional wastewater treatment using microalgae, because the algae release organic compounds, thereby finally increasing the COD level. This study focused on enhancing COD removal and meeting the effluent standard for discharge by optimizing sludge inoculation timing, which was an important factor in forming a desirable algae/bacteria consortium for more efficient COD removal and higher biomass productivity. Activated sludge has been added to reduce COD in many studies, but its inoculation was done at the start of cultivation. However, when the sludge was added after 3 days of cultivation, at which point the COD concentration started to increase again, the algal growth and biomass productivity were higher than those of the initial sludge inoculation and control (without sludge). Algal and bacterial cell numbers measured by qPCR were also higher with sludge inoculation at 3 days later. In a semi-continuous cultivation system, a hydraulic retention time of 5 days with sludge inoculation resulted in the highest biomass productivity and N/P removal. This study achieved a further improved COD removal than the conventional microalgal wastewater treatment, by introducing bacteria in activated sludge at optimized timing.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.501-507
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• 2006

Dissolved air flotation (DAF) has been well known for the gravity separation process. The solids to be separated are transferred from the water body to the water surface using micro-air bubbles. DAF has also been used for enhancing solids-liquid separation of industrial and municipal wastewater by adding a its unit parallel to a sedimentation unit to reduce the hydraulic loading in the sedimentation clarifier. This study was to investigate flotation characteristics of activated sludge by the recent DAF technique without chemical agents. In addition, the effect on temperature in flotation of activated sludge and the thickening degree of activated sludge were studied.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.200-204
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• 2006

The enzymology of an activated sludge system for a petroleum wastewater purification process was investigated. Leucine-aminopeptidase (L-AMP), ${\beta}$-glucosidase (${\beta}-GLC$), and lipase (LIP) were selected for the study. It was found that more than 81.7% of enzymatic activity was associated with microbial cells in the activated sludge floc. The metabolic response of a mixed microbial population to increased phenol concentration showed that L-AMP activity increased in the activated sludge, whereas activities of ${\beta}-GLC$ and LIP decreased, due to the inhibitory effect of the phenol which varied from 100 mg/l to 500 mg/l.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.807-813
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• 2004

Wastewater was treated by two different treatment processes; activated sludge process and advanced wastewater treatment process (KNR process) using lab-scale experiment. Two treated wastewater showed good treatment efficiency of organic matter removal, up to 90% removal. Nitrogen and phosphorus were not effectively removed though activated sludge process, while KNR process showed good removal efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus; 56% nitrogen removal and 95% phosphorus removal. KNR process showed better removal efficiency of organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus compared to activated sludge process. Organic matter characterization was tracked though measurement of UV scan, SUVA, and XAD fractionation. Treated wastewater showed higher SUVA value than wastewater influent, indicting less aromatic characteristic of organic matter. XAD fractionation showed hydrophilic fraction decreased though wastewater treatment, suggesting microbes preferentially digest hydrophilic and aliphatic molecules rather than hydrophobic and aromatic molecules of organic matter.

• Korean Journal of Microbiology
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.243-248
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• 1990

Genetically engineered strains of Pseudomonas, which could degrade the various aromatic hydrocarbons, were acclimated to the synthetic wastewater with increasing substrate concentration. All of the tested strains except KUD101 showed 70-90% of the COD removal efficiencies. Acclimated strains, Pseudomonas putida KUD106, KUD107 and KUD108 were inoculated into the ordinary activated sludge and these sludges were used in the dyeing or alkylbenzene wastewater treatment system. In the case of the wastewater containing alkylbenzene compounds, COD removal efficiency was 12-14% higher than that of the ordinary activated sludge, while it was not effective for dyeing wastewater. On the other hand, the floc formation of the activated sludge inoculated with genetically engineered strains was more rapid in both wastewaters tested than that of the activated sludge by the ordinary natural strains.

• Proceedings of the Microbiological Society of Korea Conference
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• 2003.05a
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• pp.111-114
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• 2003

The dynamics of microbial community structure of the various domestic wastewater treatment processes were examined using a novel approach of quinone profiles. The compositions of microbial quinone of 5 sites fer plant and lab-scale activated sludge were analyzed. More than 14 kinds of quinones were observed in the activated sludges tested in this study. The microbial community structure of the plant activated sludge processes a little differed from that of the lab-scale submerged MBR systems. The dominant quinones were UQ-8, UQ-10 followed $MK-8(H_4)$, MK-7 and MK-6. The molar ratio of ubiquinones to menaquinones (UQ/MK) changed from 0.81 to 1.9, indicating that aerobic bacteria dominated the microbial community of the activated sludge examined. The microbial diversity of the activated sludges calculated from the all quinone compositions was 9.5-11.9 and the microbial equability of the activated sludges was 0.64-0.79.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.55-63
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• 2002

This study was carried out to treat textile wastewater using anaerobic sludge and aerobic fixed-bed biofilm reactor immobilized with Bacillus sp. dominated activated sludge(Bacillus sp. fraction : 81.5%). The range of influent con-centration of SCOD and soluble color were 1032-1507 mg/1, and 1239-1854 degree, respectively. Continuous treatment experiments were performed with variation of textile wastewater ratio at a same HRT. When textile wastewater ratio was 100%(HRT : 24 hours), The removal efficiency of SCOD and soluble color were 88% and 78%, respectively. When compare aerobic reactor of this study that was immobilized with Bacillus sp. dominated activated sludge to other study that was immobilized with activated sludge, SCOD and soluble color removal efficiency of this study showed a little higher efficiency than immobilized with activated sludge. The Bacillus sp. fraction of initial condition was 81.5%), but the fraction after operation was decreased to 31.8%).

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.117-126
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• 2000

Solubilization pretreatments were conducted to enhance the anaerobic digestion of the waste activated sludge. Four pretreatment techniques including heating, sonication freezing and thawing, and enzyme addition were employed to solubilize the waste activated sludge under various conditions. Thermal pretreatment by heating showed the highest efficiency compared with other methods, and freezing and thawing was confirmed as a feasible alternative of solubilization as well as the pretreatment of dewatering. There is a clear correlation between the solubilization efficiency of the waste activated sludge and the gas production. Batch digestion results showed the cumulative gas production as much as four times after thermal pretreatment as compared with that by the control sludge without pretreatment. As a result, hydrolysis or solubilization pretreatment might play a significant role in the high rate digestion of the waste activated sludge.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.395-406
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• 2010

In this study, anaerobic digestion, electro-oxidation and electro-fenton oxidation processes were investigated to reduce oily refinery sludge. Anaerobic digestion process was not suitable for oily activated sludge reduction because of characteristics itself and, as experimental results revealed, reduction efficiency was low for electro-oxidation process. However, 40% total suspended solid reduction of oily activated sludge was obtained by electro-fenton oxidation process, operating at pH=1, 0.5 A and $Fe^{2+}$:$H_2O_2$ ratio = 1:30. In addition, higher reduction efficiency was obtained as reaction time was increased (30, 60, 90, 120 min) despite of low $H_2O_2$ concentration. From the results, it has been investigated that electro-fenton oxidation is efficient process for oily activated sludge reduction.