Identification of toxic substances in phenol-acetone wastewater on activated sludge and selective toxicity removal performance with ferrous pretreatment

Abstract

We investigated the effects of toxic wastewater generated during the production of phenol-acetone on activated sludge and tested pretreatment methods to selectively remove the toxicity. We found that the microbial activity in the activated sludge was inhibited by the wastewater, in which cumene hydroperoxide (CHP) with a medium effective concentration (EC₅₀) of 225 mg L⁻¹ was the main toxic substance. We tested one pretreatment method with ferrous iron to selectively remove the CHP. The CHP decomposition process, which mainly produced acetophenone, was very quick. The CHP was selectively transformed into low-toxicity organics, and a maximum of 92% was removed when 1.08 mmol L⁻¹ of ferrous iron was added, for a reaction time of 10 min, a pH of 5, and a temperature of 25 °C, and the resulting wastewater only slightly inhibited the oxygen uptake rate of activated sludge. The acclimation of activated sludge was accelerated, and a COD removal rate of more than 85% was achieved within a week. Our results confirm that ferrous iron provides a cost-effective method to selectively remove toxins from wastewater.