Use of Tetrazolium Salt INT for Estimation of Biological Activity of Activated Sludge Cultivated in SBR Process

The tetrazolium salt 2-（4-Iodophenyl） -3-（ 4-nitrophenyl ） -5-phenyltetrazolium chloride （INT） was used as a tool fi）r estimating the activity of the electron transport system （ETS） in activated sludge in a 40 L sequencing batch reactor （SBR） and domestie sewage as the organic substrate. The activity of INT-ETS during one SBR cycle, and the effeet of the ammonia concentration and the concentration of organic matter influent on the INT-ETS activity were investigated. The results show that： the use of INT is reliable in estimating of biological activity of activated sludge of SBR system; Biological activity of organic matter biodegradation, nitrification and denitrification process in SBR system reduce orderly. Obviously, INT-ETS activity reduces from 232.59 rny/（g · h） to 190. 65 rag/（ g ·h） at first and then decreases to 113.88 my/（ g · h） when influent concentration of COD and NH4＋-N is 300 my/L and 40 mg/L respectively. In addition, various influent Nitrogen （NH4＋-N are 14.5 mg/L and 42.0 my/L） and organic shock loading （COD are 293 mg/L and 685 my/L） experimenntions cure prove that operational conditions have no obvious effect on INT-ETS variation rule. However, the time of the appearance of feature points marking different reaction phase is influenced.