Microbial Degradation and Decolorization of Acid Orange Dye by Anaerobic /Aerobic Sequential Process

Abstract

This study investigates the anaerobic treatability of Acid orange dye in an anaerobic/aerobic sequential process. Laboratory scale anaerobic baffled reactor and fixed activated sludge reactor were operated at different organic loadings and hydraulic retention times. The effects of shock dye concentration on the chemical oxygen demand and color removal efficiencies were investigated in the anaerobic baffled reactor. The effect of hydraulic retention time on the color and chemical oxygen demand removal efficiencies were also investigated in the aerobic reactor. The studies were carried out in continuous mode and the effluent of the anaerobic baffled reactor was used as feed for the fixed activated sludge reactor. Chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency of 54.5% was obtained at HRT =1 day in the anaerobic reactor. The average color removal was 89.5%. Chemical oxygen demand removal efficiency of 69% was obtained at HRT =7 h in the aerobic fixed activated sludge reactor. A slight decrease of the color was also observed in the aerobic reactor. This investigation has shown that successful treatment of a highly colored wastewater is possible in the anaerobic baffled reactor. Also the results showed that, anaerobic biological system has higher efficiency in dye removal than fixed activated sludge system, while aerobic system has higher efficiency in chemical oxygen demand removal comparing with the anaerobic baffled reactor.