title: Characterization of persistent colors and decolorization of effluent from biologically treated cellulosic ethanol production wastewater.
abstract: The high chroma of cellulosic ethanol production wastewater poses a serious environmental concern; however, color-causing compounds are still not fully clear. The characteristics of the color compounds and decolorization of biologically treated effluent by electro-catalytic oxidation were investigated in this study. Excitation-emission matrix (EEM), fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), UV-Vis spectra, and ultrafiltration (UF) fractionation were used to analyze color compounds. High chroma of wastewater largely comes from humic materials, which exhibited great fluorescence proportion (67.1 %) in the biologically treated effluent. Additionally, the color compounds were mainly distributed in the molecular weight fractions with 3-10 and 10-30 kDa, which contributed 53.5 and 34.6 % of the wastewater color, respectively. Further decolorization of biologically treated effluent by electro-catalytic oxidation was investigated, and 98.3 % of color removal accompanied with 97.3 % reduction of humic acid-like matter was achieved after 180 min. The results presented herein will facilitate the development of a well decolorization for cellulosic ethanol production wastewater and better understanding of the biological fermentation.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Lili
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shan
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: Junfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. lyqiem@163.com.|School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. lyqiem@163.com.
authors.forename: Yanling
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
authors.forename: John J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Ambuchi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. yujief@hit.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Yujie
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
mesh_terms: D002482:Cellulose / Q000737:chemistry*; D003116:Color; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry*; D005285:Fermentation; D006812:Humic Substances; D007220:Industrial Waste; D008970:Molecular Weight; D010084:Oxidation-Reduction; D014462:Ultrafiltration; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods; D062065:Wastewater / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D002482:Cellulose; D000431:Ethanol; D006812:Humic Substances; D007220:Industrial Waste; D062065:Wastewater
keywords: Cellulosic ethanol production wastewater; Color; Distribution of molecular weight; Electro-catalytic oxidation; Humic acid-like matter