Surfactants Elimination by biological pathway

Abstract

Surfactants are major components of detergents and cosmetics; they are among the most undesirable pollutants in the environment because of their toxic effects on aquatic organisms. The main objective of this work is to define the elimination limits of the three different types of surfactants (anionic, cationic and amphoteric) by activated sludge. The results obtained were modeled by the model ASM1 (Activated Sludge Model N°1) in order to establish a better representation of the kinetic parameters such as the rate of disappearance of surfactant rs and the growth rate of the biomass rc. According to the classification based on biodegradation surfactants, the results obtained suggest that the AES is more degraded than the other surfactants with rs AES = 17.01 mg / lh at (cAES = 40 mg / l, T = 35 ° C) and rc AES = 1.42. mg / lh under the same conditions.