Toxicity Reduction of Municipal Wastewater by Anaerobic-anoxic-oxic Process

Objective This study was conducted to optimize the operational parameters of anaerobic-anoxic-oxic （A^2/O） processes to reduce the toxicity of municipal wastewater and evaluate its ability to reduce toxicity. Methods A luminescent bacterium toxicity bioassay was employed to assess the toxicity of influent and effluent of each reactor in the A2/O system. Results The optimum operational parameters for toxicity reduction were as follows： anaerobic hydraulic retention time （HRT） = 2.8 h, anoxic HRT = 2.8 h, aerobic HRT = 6.9 h, sludge retention time （SRT） = 15 days and internal recycle ratio （IRR） = 100%. An important toxicity reduction （%） was observed in the optimized A2/O process, even when the toluene concentration of the influent was 120.7 mg·L^-1. Conclusions The toxicity of municipal wastewater was reduced significantly during the A^2/O process. A^2/O process can be used for toxicity reduction of municipal wastewater under toxic-shock loading.