title: Influences of organic loading disturbances on the performance of anaerobic filter process to treat purified terephthalic acid wastewater.
abstract: A lab-scale anaerobic filter process was operated for the treatment of purified terephthalic acid (PTA) wastewater, and the influences of organic loading disturbances on the process performance were investigated. After about 15 month operation, the COD removal efficiency was maintained at 79% under the volumetric loading rate of 5.05 kg-COD/m3/d and the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 50 h. Interestingly, this performance could be further enhanced over 85% by applying a step-increase/decrease of the HRT, which was mainly due to the increased p-toluate degradation. In the shock loading tests of four major pollutants (benzoate, acetate, terephthalate and p-toluate), it was found that the overall process performance was adversely affected by all the shock loadings, indicating that the syntrophic microbial consortium involved in the PTA wastewater treatment is highly sensitive to the organic loading disturbances. The complex inhibition effects of the benzoate and acetate on the terephthalate and p-toluate degradations were mainly responsible for this sensitivity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology, San 31, Hyoja-dong, Pohang 790-784, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Jea Youl
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Joung
authors.forename: Hae Woo
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hyeoksun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Min Woo
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jong Moon
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Park
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D005374:Filtration / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000592:standards*; D010795:Phthalic Acids / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D013997:Time Factors; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid; D018508:Water Purification
chemical_list: D010795:Phthalic Acids; C011363:terephthalic acid