Assessing the usefulness of clostridia spores for evaluating sewage sludge hygienization
Julia Martín-Díaz1, Maria Ruiz-Hernando2, Sergi Astals3
1Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, University of Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 643, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; The Water Research Institute, University of Barcelona, C/ Montalegre 6, 08001 Barcelona, Spain.
Abstract:
The capability of clostridia spores to act as pathogen indicators in sewage sludge treatment was investigated. Sulfite-reducing clostridia and E. coli levels were monitored during waste activated sludge pre-treatments (alkali and ultrasound) and its subsequent mesophilic anaerobic digestion. E. coli was maintained or reduced depending on treatment type and intensity. However, alkali pre-treatment (35.3gNaOH/kgTS) by itself and alkali (157gNaOH/kgTS) and ultrasound (27,000kJ/kgTS) pre-treatments followed by anaerobic digestion provoked reproducible clostridia increases. Specifically, up to 2.7log10 after 35.3gNaOH/kgTS pre-treatment and up to 1.9 and 1.1log10 after digesting the 157gNaOH/kg TS and 27,000kJ/kgTS pre-treated sludge, respectively. Having rejected the hypotheses of sporulation and floc dissipation, the most plausible explanation for these clostridia increases is re-growth. These results question the suitability of clostridia spores as indicators of sludge treatment and other biological treatments where clostridia may have a role.
