Comparison of dissolved-organic-carbon residuals from air- and pure-oxygen-activated-sludge sequencing-batch reactors

Literature shows that full-scale pure-oxygen activated sludge (O2-AS) wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) generate effluents with higher dissolved-organic carbon (DOC) concentrations and larger high-molecular-weight fractions compared to air-activated-sludge (Air-AS) WWTP effluents. The purpose of this paper was to evaluate how gas supplied (air vs. pure oxygen) to sequencing-batch reactors affected DOC transformations. The main conclusions of this paper are (a) O2-AS effluent DOC is more refractory than air-AS effluent DOC; and (b) O2-AS systems may have higher five-day biochemical oxygen demand removals than air-AS systems; however, in terms of COD and DOC removal, air-AS systems are better than O2-AS systems. Analysis of a database from side-by-side O2- and air-AS pilot tests from literature supported these observations.