• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.28-38
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• 1994

New problems have been recently posed on the abnormal foaming (Scum) in an aeration tank and the sludge flotation in a final sedimentation tank during the activated sludge process. However, the activities of the causing bacteria, Nocardia-amarae in an aeration tank have not been searched out at all. Therefore, in this article the activities of Nocardia-amarae in an aeration tank have been closely examined by means of the changes of (F/M) ratio, SRT and inflowing substrate using continuous type and fed-batch type. Summarized results of experiments are as follows. 1. Regrading continuous culture when synthetic wastewater was used substrate neither the increase in the number of Nocardia-amarae in the aeration tank nor the Occurrence of Scum was observed. 2. In the case of fed-batch culture, Nocardia-amarae in the aeration tank increased due to the partial change in substrate and the effect of SRT was significant. 3. Once the scum was formed and the quantity of added Nocardia-amarae and substrate were not changed, the effect of STR was not significant.

• Proceedings of the Korean Environmental Sciences Society Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.2-4
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• 1998

Proliferation of Nocardia amarae cells in activated sludge has often been associated with the generation of nuisance foams. Despite intense research activities in recent years to examine the causes and control of Nocardia foaming in activated sludge, the foaming continued to persist throughout the activated sludge treatment plants in United States. In addition to causing various operational problems to treatment processes, the presence of Nocardia may have secondary effects on the fate of heavy metals that are not well known. For example, for treatment plants facing more stringent metal removal requirements, potential metal removal by Nocardia cells in foaming activated sludge would be a welcome secondary effect. In contrast, with new viosolid disposal regulations in place (Code o( Federal Regulation No. 503), higher concentration of metals in biosolids from foaming activated sludge could create management problems. The goal of this research was to investigate the metal sorption property of Nocardia amarae cells grown in batch reactors and in chemostat reactors. Specific surface area and metal sorption characteristics of N. amarae cells harvested at various growth stages were compared. Three metals examined in this study were copper, cadmium and nickel. Nocardia amarae strain (SRWTP isolate) used in this study was obtained from the University of California at Berkeley. The pure culture was grown in 4L batch reactor containing mineral salt medium with sodium acetate as the sole carbon source. In order to quantify the sorption of heavy metal ions to N amarae cell surfaces, cells from the batch reactor were harvested, washed, and suspended in 30mL centrifuge tubes. Metal sorption studies were conducted at pH 7.0 and ionlc strength of 10-2M. The sorption Isotherm showed that the cells harvested from the stationary and endogenous growth phase exhibited significantly higher metal sorption capacity than the cells from the exponential phase. The sequence of preferential uptake of metals by N. amarae cells was Cu>Cd>Ni. The specific surFace area of Nocardia cells was determined by a dye adsorption method. N.amarae cells growing at ewponential phase had significantly less specific surface area than that of stationary phase, indicating that the lower metal sorption capacity of Nocardia cells growing at exponential phase may be due to the lower specific surface area. The growth conditions of Nocardia cells in continuous culture affect their cell surface properties, thereby governing the adsorption capacity of heavy metal. The comparison of dye sorption isotherms for Nocardia cells growing at various growth rates revealed that the cell surface area increased with increasing sludge age, indicating that the cell surface area is highly dependent on the steady-state growth rate. The highest specific surface area of 199m21g was obtained from N.amarae cell harvested at 0.33 day-1 of growth rate. This result suggests that growth condition not only alters the structure of Nocardia cell wall but also affects the surface area, thus yielding more binding sites of metal removal. After reaching the steady-state condition at dilution rate, metal adsorption isotherms were used to determine the equilibrium distributions of metals between aqueous and Nocardia cell surfaces. The metal sorption capacity of Nocardia biomass harvested from 0.33 day-1 of growth rate was significantly higher than that of cells harvested from 0.5- and 1-day-1 operation, indicatng that N.amarae cells with a lower growth rate have higher sorpion capacity. This result was in close agreement with the trend observed from the batch study. To evaluate the effect of Nocardia cells on the metal binding capacity of activated sludge, specific surface area and metal sorption capacity of the mixture of Nocardia pure cultures and activated sludge biomass were determined by a series of batch experiments. The higher levels of Nocardia cells in the Nocardia-activated sludge samples resulted in the higher specific surface area, explaining the higher metal sorption sites by the mixed luquor samples containing greater amounts on Nocardia cells. The effect of Nocardia cells on the metal sorption capacity of activated sludge was evaluated by spiking an activated sludge sample with various amounts of pre culture Nocardia cells. The results of the Langmuir isotherm model fitted to the metal sorption by various mixtures of Nocardia and activated sludge indicated that the mixture containing higher Nocardia levels had higher metal adsorption capacity than the mixture containing lower Nocardia levels. At Nocardia levels above 100mg/g VSS, the metal sorption capacity of activate sludge increased proportionally with the amount of Noeardia cells present in the mixed liquor, indicating that the presence of Nocardia may increase the viosorption capacity of activated sludge.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.12 no.6
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• pp.878-881
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• 2002

The goal of the current research was to assess the influence of the growth rate of Nocardia amarae on its overall metal binding capacity. Batch sorption isotherms for cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and nickel (Ni) showed that Nocardia cells harvested from chemostat cultures at a dilution rate of $0.33d^-1$ had a significantly higher metal sorption capacity than cells grown at 0.5 and $1d^-1$. The cell surface area estimated using a dye technique indicated that pure N. amarae cells grown at a lower growth rate had a significantly more specific surface area than cells harvested from a higher growth rate operation. Accordingly, this difference in the specific surface area seemed to indicate that the higher metal sorption capacity of the slowly growing Nocardia cells was due to their higher specific surface area.

• KSBB Journal
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.209-213
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• 1998

The characteristics of de-emulsification of pertroleum emulsion by Nocardia amarae were investigated. Insoluble medium containing n-hexadecane was more effective than soluble medium in de-emulsification of emulsion containing diesel and bunker C as the organic phase. Emulsion made by the addition of xanthan or bioemulsifier was de-emulsified by N. amarae, and longer culture age was effective. In low viscosity range, organic phase with longer carbon chain was more effective. The contact, angle between bacterial film and water droplet in air increased from 16 degree for 4 day culture age to 26 degree for 15 day. The contact angle between bacterial film and water droplet in kerosene, n-heyxane or n-hexadecane also increased to greater than 100 degree after 3 day culture age. The hydrophobicity of bactgerial film increased according to the culture age.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.480-485
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• 2004

Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) technology was evaluated as a monitoring tool for quantification of Nocardia amarae causing a nuisance foaming problem in activated sludge process. The identified signature peak was 19:1 alcohol as a reliable unique peak to N. amarae. Chemostat study revealed that the distribution and quantity of fatty acid peaks were dependent on the growth stage of Nocardia. The FAME results were similar for two relatively high dilution rates; however, the amounts of signature peaks extracted from the 4 and 6 day cultures were significantly higher. This dependence of signature peaks on the physiological state of the organism may be a useful information to assess the health of microbial populations in activated sludge. A laboratory scale batch foaming potential experiment provided a critical foaming level depending on Nocardia population. This critical Nocardia level determined in this study was in terms of either the threshold filament intersections number or the threshold signature FAME amount. The threshold peak area of signature FAME (19:1 alcohol) and corresponding filament counts were 430PA/mg VSS and $1.45{\times}10^6$ intersections/g VSS, respectively. The threshold signature FAME level could be effectively applied as a criterion for diagnosing foam occurrence in activated sludge system.