Dynamics of effluent treatment plant during commissioning of activated sludge process unit

Industrial effluent treatment plants (ETPs) are very important in protecting the environment and different life forms from harmful industrial waste. Hence, the efficiency of ETPs must be regularly monitored, particularly after major repair or replacement work. Present study evaluated the performance of an ETP over a period of 4 months, during which aeration tank (T1) of the activated sludge unit was replaced with a new one (T2). System had to be maintained operational during this transition, which warranted close monitoring of the system performance due to the daily load of hazardous industrial wastewater. Analysis showed that the raw wastewater was highly variable in composition and contained many hazardous organic and inorganic pollutants, such as heavy metals, bisphenol A and cyanoacetylurea. It showed significant toxicity against HepG2 cells in vitro. However, the ETP was found to successfully treat and detoxify the wastewater. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) analysis showed large temporal fluctuations in the ETP microbial community, which is consistent with the variable composition of wastewater. It indicated that functional stability of the ETP was not associated with stability of the microbial community, probably due to high microbial biodiversity and consequently high functional redundancy. In conclusion, the CETP showed consistent level of detoxification and microbial community dynamics after switching to T2, indicating successful development, acclimatization and commissioning of T2.