Biodegradability of terephthalic acid in terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater

As the characteristic pollutant,terephthalic acid(TA)was in charge of 40%-78% of the total COD of terylene artificial silk printing and dyeing wastewater(TPW-water).The studies on biodegradability of TA were conducted in a serial of activated sludge reactors with TPW-water.TA appeared to be readily biodegradable with removal efficiency over 96.5% under aerobic conditions,hardly biodegradable with removal efficiency below 10% under anoxic conditions and slowly biodegradable with a turnover between 31.4% and 56.0% under anaerobic conditions. TA also accounted for the majority of BOD in TPW-water.The process combined by anoxic,anaerobic and aerobic activated sludge reactor was suitable for TA degradation and TPW-water treatment.Further, the aerobic process was essentially much more effective than the anaerobic or anoxic one to degrade TA in TPW-water.