Development of a biological process for livestock wastewater treatment using a technique for predominant outgrowth of Bacillus species

Abstract

The investigation has been carried out by treating 1 m(3)/day of livestock wastewater for 9 months. The biological process is composed of two reactors connected in series. Each reactor has been designed to stimulate the growth of Bacillus sp., spore-forming aerobic or facultatively anaerobic bacteria. As a consequence, the population of Bacillus sp. is aptly increased via the cycle of sporulation, germination and proliferation. With a predominant growth of Bacillus sp., the microbial activity has been increased comparing to activated sludge based on the result of measuring specific oxygen uptake rate (SOUR). This process was able to remove nitrogen and phosphorus as well as organic matter efficiently. More than 98% of biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and chemical oxygen demand (COD) were removed. In term of removing the total nitrogen (T-N), about 98% of this was reduced. On average, the T-N concentration in the feed was 3,270 mg/l but 74 mg/l in the effluent including 30 mg/l of nitrite and nitrate nitrogen. The total phosphorus (T-P) reduction averaged 87.5%. As a result, it would be advantageous to load this process in order to deal with high-strength wastewater.