Acidibility established as a characteristic of high strength organic wastewater quality

Abstract

Acidification processes of the alcohol wastewater on molasses and the sugar-peptone manual make-up water were studied to determine their acidification capability. The two types of wastewater were both diluted into serial gradient dilutions and acidified separately. The volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and were detected daily until acidification reached a maximum state. The degraded COD in each dilution, which were considered as degraded VFAs and analyzed. The ratio of the sum of produced VFAs and degraded VFAs to the initial COD of dilutions was defined as acidibility ( V/ C). It showed that within a large concentration extent, the V/ C values were consistent for different dilutions of each wastewater. Thus acidibility becomes a characteristic of high strength organic wastewater quality. The acidibility of the alcohol wastewater on molasses was analyzed to be 0.71, and the acidibility of sugar-peptone manual make-up water was 0.76. In a practicable view, it is meaningful to set up acidibility as a new water quality index, which can be used to guide the design of acidification technique in various high concentration organic wastewater treatment practices.