<p>GE Healthcare operates in Uppsala (Sweden) and develops systems, equipments and medium to purify medical substances. Discussions with the local authority concerning planed far-reaching changes and upgrades of the biological process techniques for sewage management, aroused the question about revising the terms of permit for the activity. Therefore it seemed necessary to evaluate a newly installed biological process technique, which is the background of this thesis. The evaluated biological treatment process was built in 2003 and consists of a biological reactor filled with moving bed carriers with a high surface area for biological growth. At the time of the project the biological wastewater treatment plant consisted of a flow equalization facility and two following parallel biological processes; a biological reactor with moving bed carriers and a tower trickling filter.</p><p>The aim of this thesis was to survey the function of the biological reactor with respect to the reduction of organic matter. Further to clarify which circumstances that have a negative effect on the organic reduction. During the three forthcoming years, an extensive reconstruction of the biological wastewater treatment facility will be accomplished. During the construction period the flow equalization will be very limited. Therefore an emission forecast with respect to organic matter was performed comprising the construction period during the years 2005, 2006 and 2007. This to estimate the safety margin to the emission standard during the construction period.</p><p>Several parameters were surveyed during the project, water temperature, pH, plural nutrition elements, flow, oxygen concentration, suspended solids, organic load and microbial activity. At two occasions, the parameters were extensively studied during a 24-hour period respectively. Two capacity experiments were performed in order to evaluate the organic reduction at different organic loads. The obtained results together with an estimation regarding the organic load performed by AB Ångpanneföreningen were used for the emission forecast. The forecast considered two cases, operation with and without dosage of a flow with high organic content from the local solvent recycling facility (called T10-dosage).</p><p>According to the forecast, the emission standard will be fulfilled during an average month regarding the organic load. This without T10-dosage and with an average reduction of 55 %. To fulfill the standard during a month with maximum organic load, a reduction of 65 and 75 % will be required in the cases without and with T10-dosage respectively. The organic reduction is negatively effected by lasting loads of 7 kg CODfilt/m3 or higher, or by a great increase of the load in a short period of time. Sporadic peaks regarding the organic load appeared to have temporary or no negative effects on the reduction. Flow variations during evenings, nights and weekends caused variations in the organic load with negative effect of the reduction rate. The oxygen concentration in the biological reactor has a conclusive significance of the reduction rate, a lower concentration than 2 mg/l affects the reduction rate in a negative way. The buffering capacity in the biofilm reactor showed to work excellently, the pH value varied between 6.8 and 8.9. There is an immediate risk of temperatures over 40^oC during the construction period. This could have a negative influence of the organic reduction. Individual measured temperatures of 38^oC did not have a negative effect on the reduction rate. The amount of suspended solids varied a lot in the outflow from the biological reactor and will continue to do so during the construction period.</p> / <p>GE Healthcare bedriver sin verksamhet i Uppsala vilken består av att utveckla system, utrustning och media för att rena läkemedelssubstanser. Vid diskussion med Uppsala kommuns VA- och avfallskontor väcktes frågan angående omprövning av tillståndet för verksamheten. Diskussionerna rörde planerade processförändringar och kompletteringar av bolagets biologiska processavloppsvattenrening. Av den anledningen ansågs det nödvändigt att utreda en för företaget ny processteknik för processavloppsvatten, vilket är bakgrunden till detta examensarbete. Den utvärderade processtekniken är en biofilmreaktor innehållande ett rörligt bärarmaterial med en stor skyddad yta för biologisk tillväxt. Biofilmreaktorn togs i drift under hösten år 2003 och därmed bestod det lokala reningsverket förenklat sett av en utjämningsanläggning följd av två parallella biosteg, ett biotorn med konventionell stationär biobädd över vilken processavloppsvatten spreds samt en biofilmreaktor med rörligt bärarmaterial.</p><p>Syftet med examensarbetet var att kartlägga biofilmreaktorns funktion med avseende på reduktion av organiskt material. Vidare att klargöra vid vilka förhållanden reduktionsgraden har påverkats negativt. Under de tre kommande åren skall en stor om- och tillbyggnad av reningsverket genomföras. Förändringen kommer att medföra att utjämningsvolymen blir mycket begränsad under ombyggnadsperioden. Av den anledningen var ytterligare ett syfte med examensarbetet att utföra en utsläppsprognos med avseende på organiskt material för åren 2005 till och med 2007. Detta för att bedöma säkerhetsmarginalen till utsläppsvillkoret under ombyggnadsperioden.</p><p>Examensarbetet realiserades genom att kartlägga parametrarna organisk belastning, organisk reduktion, vattentemperatur, pH, närsalter, flöde, koncentration löst syre, suspenderad substans samt mikrobiell aktivitet. Därutöver utfördes två kapacitetsförsök för att kartlägga den organiska belastningens inverkan på reduktionen. Vid det ena försöket skapades en högre organisk belastning genom att successivt öka flödesbelastningen över biofilmreaktorn. Vid det andra försöket doserades en delström (kallad T10-dosering) innehållande rester från den lokala lösningsmedelsåtervinningen med stort organiskt innehåll. Därtill utfördes två dygnsprovtagningar för att kartlägga ett flertal parametrars dygnsvariationer. Den framtagna utsläppsprognosen baserades på en belastningsprognos utförd av AB Ångpanneföreningen samt den i arbetet kartlagda reduktionen av organiskt material vid olika belastningar. Prognosen omfattar två fall, med eller utan T10-dosering.</p><p>Enligt utsläppsprognosen kommer utsläppsvillkoret inte att överskridas under åren 2005 till och med 2007. Detta gäller vid en för året genomsnittlig månad avseende belastning utan T10-dosering och med en genomsnittlig organisk reduktionsgrad på 55 %. Under en månad med maximal belastning krävs 65 % reduktion och 75 % med T10-dosering. Kapacitetsförsöken visade att reduktionsgraden påverkades negativt vid en varaktig belastning överstigande 7 kg COD_löst/m3 samt vid kraftiga belastningsökningar. Tillfälliga belastningstoppar hade endast kortvarig eller ingen negativ inverkan på reduktionen. Höga flöden under dagtid och låga flöden under nätter och helger orsakade variationer i den organiska belastningen, vilket hade en negativ inverkan på reduktionen. När koncentrationen löst syre i biofilmreaktorn understeg 2 mg/l påverkades mikroorganismerna negativt och därmed även reduktionen. Buffertkapaciteten i biofilmreaktorn var god under den studerade tidsperioden och pH-värdet varierade mellan 6,5 och 8,8. Under ombyggnadsperioden föreligger en stor risk för att vattentemperaturen kan bli för hög i biofilmreaktorn vid ett flertal tillfällen. Enstaka uppmätta temperaturtoppar på 38°C påverkade dock inte reduktionen negativt. I biofilmreaktorns utgående vatten varierade mängden suspenderad substans kraftigt, vilket även kommer att gälla under ombyggnadsperioden.</p>

GE Healthcare operates in Uppsala (Sweden) and develops systems, equipments and medium to purify medical substances. Discussions with the local authority concerning planed far-reaching changes and upgrades of the biological process techniques for sewage management, aroused the question about revising the terms of permit for the activity. Therefore it seemed necessary to evaluate a newly installed biological process technique, which is the background of this thesis. The evaluated biological treatment process was built in 2003 and consists of a biological reactor filled with moving bed carriers with a high surface area for biological growth. At the time of the project the biological wastewater treatment plant consisted of a flow equalization facility and two following parallel biological processes; a biological reactor with moving bed carriers and a tower trickling filter. The aim of this thesis was to survey the function of the biological reactor with respect to the reduction of organic matter. Further to clarify which circumstances that have a negative effect on the organic reduction. During the three forthcoming years, an extensive reconstruction of the biological wastewater treatment facility will be accomplished. During the construction period the flow equalization will be very limited. Therefore an emission forecast with respect to organic matter was performed comprising the construction period during the years 2005, 2006 and 2007. This to estimate the safety margin to the emission standard during the construction period. Several parameters were surveyed during the project, water temperature, pH, plural nutrition elements, flow, oxygen concentration, suspended solids, organic load and microbial activity. At two occasions, the parameters were extensively studied during a 24-hour period respectively. Two capacity experiments were performed in order to evaluate the organic reduction at different organic loads. The obtained results together with an estimation regarding the organic load performed by AB Ångpanneföreningen were used for the emission forecast. The forecast considered two cases, operation with and without dosage of a flow with high organic content from the local solvent recycling facility (called T10-dosage). According to the forecast, the emission standard will be fulfilled during an average month regarding the organic load. This without T10-dosage and with an average reduction of 55 %. To fulfill the standard during a month with maximum organic load, a reduction of 65 and 75 % will be required in the cases without and with T10-dosage respectively. The organic reduction is negatively effected by lasting loads of 7 kg CODfilt/m3 or higher, or by a great increase of the load in a short period of time. Sporadic peaks regarding the organic load appeared to have temporary or no negative effects on the reduction. Flow variations during evenings, nights and weekends caused variations in the organic load with negative effect of the reduction rate. The oxygen concentration in the biological reactor has a conclusive significance of the reduction rate, a lower concentration than 2 mg/l affects the reduction rate in a negative way. The buffering capacity in the biofilm reactor showed to work excellently, the pH value varied between 6.8 and 8.9. There is an immediate risk of temperatures over 40oC during the construction period. This could have a negative influence of the organic reduction. Individual measured temperatures of 38oC did not have a negative effect on the reduction rate. The amount of suspended solids varied a lot in the outflow from the biological reactor and will continue to do so during the construction period. / GE Healthcare bedriver sin verksamhet i Uppsala vilken består av att utveckla system, utrustning och media för att rena läkemedelssubstanser. Vid diskussion med Uppsala kommuns VA- och avfallskontor väcktes frågan angående omprövning av tillståndet för verksamheten. Diskussionerna rörde planerade processförändringar och kompletteringar av bolagets biologiska processavloppsvattenrening. Av den anledningen ansågs det nödvändigt att utreda en för företaget ny processteknik för processavloppsvatten, vilket är bakgrunden till detta examensarbete. Den utvärderade processtekniken är en biofilmreaktor innehållande ett rörligt bärarmaterial med en stor skyddad yta för biologisk tillväxt. Biofilmreaktorn togs i drift under hösten år 2003 och därmed bestod det lokala reningsverket förenklat sett av en utjämningsanläggning följd av två parallella biosteg, ett biotorn med konventionell stationär biobädd över vilken processavloppsvatten spreds samt en biofilmreaktor med rörligt bärarmaterial. Syftet med examensarbetet var att kartlägga biofilmreaktorns funktion med avseende på reduktion av organiskt material. Vidare att klargöra vid vilka förhållanden reduktionsgraden har påverkats negativt. Under de tre kommande åren skall en stor om- och tillbyggnad av reningsverket genomföras. Förändringen kommer att medföra att utjämningsvolymen blir mycket begränsad under ombyggnadsperioden. Av den anledningen var ytterligare ett syfte med examensarbetet att utföra en utsläppsprognos med avseende på organiskt material för åren 2005 till och med 2007. Detta för att bedöma säkerhetsmarginalen till utsläppsvillkoret under ombyggnadsperioden. Examensarbetet realiserades genom att kartlägga parametrarna organisk belastning, organisk reduktion, vattentemperatur, pH, närsalter, flöde, koncentration löst syre, suspenderad substans samt mikrobiell aktivitet. Därutöver utfördes två kapacitetsförsök för att kartlägga den organiska belastningens inverkan på reduktionen. Vid det ena försöket skapades en högre organisk belastning genom att successivt öka flödesbelastningen över biofilmreaktorn. Vid det andra försöket doserades en delström (kallad T10-dosering) innehållande rester från den lokala lösningsmedelsåtervinningen med stort organiskt innehåll. Därtill utfördes två dygnsprovtagningar för att kartlägga ett flertal parametrars dygnsvariationer. Den framtagna utsläppsprognosen baserades på en belastningsprognos utförd av AB Ångpanneföreningen samt den i arbetet kartlagda reduktionen av organiskt material vid olika belastningar. Prognosen omfattar två fall, med eller utan T10-dosering. Enligt utsläppsprognosen kommer utsläppsvillkoret inte att överskridas under åren 2005 till och med 2007. Detta gäller vid en för året genomsnittlig månad avseende belastning utan T10-dosering och med en genomsnittlig organisk reduktionsgrad på 55 %. Under en månad med maximal belastning krävs 65 % reduktion och 75 % med T10-dosering. Kapacitetsförsöken visade att reduktionsgraden påverkades negativt vid en varaktig belastning överstigande 7 kg CODlöst/m3 samt vid kraftiga belastningsökningar. Tillfälliga belastningstoppar hade endast kortvarig eller ingen negativ inverkan på reduktionen. Höga flöden under dagtid och låga flöden under nätter och helger orsakade variationer i den organiska belastningen, vilket hade en negativ inverkan på reduktionen. När koncentrationen löst syre i biofilmreaktorn understeg 2 mg/l påverkades mikroorganismerna negativt och därmed även reduktionen. Buffertkapaciteten i biofilmreaktorn var god under den studerade tidsperioden och pH-värdet varierade mellan 6,5 och 8,8. Under ombyggnadsperioden föreligger en stor risk för att vattentemperaturen kan bli för hög i biofilmreaktorn vid ett flertal tillfällen. Enstaka uppmätta temperaturtoppar på 38°C påverkade dock inte reduktionen negativt. I biofilmreaktorns utgående vatten varierade mängden suspenderad substans kraftigt, vilket även kommer att gälla under ombyggnadsperioden.

Abstract DMSO (dimethyl sulfoxide) has merits of a high boiling point and high solution power to most photo-resistant materials used in semiconductor and LCD (liquid crystal displayers) industries. Wastewaters originated from the industries contain hundreds of grams of DMSO per cubic mater. DMSO is easily decomposed to DMS (dimethyl sulfide) and DMSO2 (dimethyl sulfone) by microorganisms in biological reactors. Malodorous DMS has a relatively low water solubility and can easily emit into the atmosphere thus causes nuisance problems. The fraction of conversion of DMSO to DMS is possibly related to the volumetric DMSO loading (F/V) to an aerobic wastewater treatment pond. This study aimed to investigate the volumetric DMSO loading which minimize the DMS production. Sequencing batch reaction tests indicate that with F/V of less than 0.45 kg DMSO-S/m3.day, there was no DMS detected in the treating mixed liquor and the vented gas from the liquor. It was also observed that with sulfate-S of higher than 0.55 kg/m3 in the mixed liquor which corresponded to F/V of 0.55 kg DMSO-S/m3.day, a high conversion of DMSO to DMS resulted in the system failure.

This thesis is focused to the comparison of two wastewater treatment systems - constructed wetlands and mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plant. The main goal of the theses is to compare two types of wastewater treatment systems and to evaluate hypothesis that constructed wetlands are cheaper and more efficient than mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plant. To be able to compare two various wastewater treatment systems 18 (9 constructed wetlands and 9 mechanical-biological plants, three size groups of both types of plants) wastewater treatment plant were chosen and compared. The treatment effectiveness, investment and operating costs, advantages and disadvantages of both the systems were compared. The information about all individual systems was obtained from the local municipalities, operators and partially from the Ministry of Environment of CR. Obtained data involved treatment technology, amount of annual treated water, building data and capital and operating costs. In some waste water treatment plant (WWTP) the water samples were taken and the analyses of chosen parameters (not measured in WWTP) were done. Once in 2010 year the samples of water, sediments and sludges were taken and the analyses of heavy metals was done. For assessment of operational problems in constructed...

Biological wastewater treatment relies on the diverse and complex metabolic activities of bacteria to remove pollutants. Its success depends on the metabolic efficiency of the bacteria. Activated sludge models use parameters that attempt to depict bacterial growth and metabolic processes. However, current methods do not separate metabolic activity from growth and maintenance. As a result, activated sludge processes are misinterpreted or over-simplified. Alternative methods for gauging bacterial activity have been proposed and include the measurements of cellular derived compounds that relate specifically to energy cycling and include Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide [NADH]. To date, NADH has been largely measured within activated sludge using commercial online fluorimeters with in situ probes. However, this current method provides a measure of the 'bulk' (raw) fluorescence within the system, resulting in difficulties when interpreting fluorescence data and poor sensitivity for detecting changes in intracellular [NADH]. This study has developed a more reliable method for estimating intracellular [NADH] and thus metabolic activity within activated sludge systems. Separating extracellular from intracellular [NADH] in samples was crucial because NADH was released and accumulates in the extracellular environment at a concentration of 200 ~M immediately following bacterial death or lysis. This concentration did not decline overtime. This not only caused high background fluorescence but also reduced the sensitivity of detection for changes in intracellular [NADH]. In particular, considerably higher [NADH] values to those from the extracellular suspensions were obtained following extraction of the intracellular material, suggesting that the cell membranes were not being penetrated by the excitable light source. Of the extraction procedures examined, filtration followed by extraction of the intracellular material with a hot Tris buffer was the most efficient and was recommended for accurate estimates of intracellular [NADH] in situ. In addition, standards were used to quantify NADH (moles per cell and/or unit volume) from unknown samples. The limits of detection were found to be 1.058 - 353 uM, whereas concentrations above 353 jAM self-quenched. Sample concentrations were always within these limits of detection. Hence, the sensitivity, reliability and experimental application of the original method was improved upon and able to be used for the direct measurement of microbial metabolic activity, something that has not been demonstrated before now. This study found that bacteria have between 106~ I 08 NADH molecules per cell depending on their metabolic state. A highly metabolically active bacterial cell had between 1O6~ tO7 NADH molecules, while a less active bacterial cell had between to7 -to8 NADH molecules. These measurements of metabolic activity were simultaneously monitored alongside other measures of bacterial growth, such as the incorporation of radiolabelled thymidine into DNA as a direct measure of DNA replication (new cell synthesis), the incorporation of radiolabelled leucine into protein as a direct measure of protein synthesis, oxygen uptake rates (OUR) as a direct measure of respiration, ATP as a measure of potential energy and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) as a measure of substrate assimilation. As OUR deceased, bacterial growth (using both the thymidine and leucine assays), specific [NADH] and specific [ATP] increased. High OUR and substrate oxidation rates simultaneous with low specific [NADH] indicated high rates of electron transport and thus efficient metabolic activity. Also, low OUR and substrate oxidation rates simultaneous with high specific [NADHI indicated inefficient rates of electron transport, therefore inhibiting oxidative phosphorylation (ATP production). A lack of oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor did not efficiently reoxidise NADH to NAD and resulted in an accumulation of NADH within the cell. Thus, a measure of low specific [NADHI was linked to the efficient rate of reoxidation of NADH to NAD* and reflects high metabolic efficiency. DNA and protein syntheses were coupled following substrate enrichment (glucose or acetate), indicating that bacteria were in balanced growth. However, DNA and protein syntheses became uncoupled once substrate was depleted, indicating unbalanced growth. An average Leu:TdR ratio of 7.4 was determined for activated sludge and was comparable to values published from marine systems. This ratio increased during log growth phase and decreased during stationary growth phases. Specific growth rates determined using the [3HITdR and [3H]Leu assay yielded values ranging from 2 - 10.5 d' and from 2.5 - 6 d1, respectively and were comparable to published values. Changes in OUR, NADH, ATE', DNA replication and protein synthesis were statistically ordinated using multidimensional scaling, and changes (in magnitude and direction) in bacterial metabolic activity were observed. Such methods enable the tracing of where bacteria divert their energies, such as to growth or maintenance and thus provide a greater understanding of bacterial behaviour in activated sludge. While studying anoxic and anaerobic conditions were beyond the scope of this work, the use of such methods to monitor bacterial metabolic activity under such conditions is warranted.

The overall hypothesis of this work is that the physiological microbial stress response could serve as a rapid, sensitive, and mechanistically-based indicator of process upset in biological wastewater treatment systems that receive sporadic shock loads of toxic chemicals. The microbial stress response is a set of conserved and unique biochemical mechanisms that an organism activates or induces under adverse conditions, specifically for the protection of cellular components or the repair of damaged macromolecules. Using traditional immunochemical analysis techniques, the heat shock protein, GroEL, was found to be induced in activated sludge cultures exposed to perturbations of chemicals at all concentrations tested (cadmium, pentachlorophenol, and acetone) or heat stress. As total cadmium concentrations increased above 5 mg/L, there was a significant and consistent increase in effluent volatile suspended solids concentrations from activated sludge sequencing batch reactors relative to unstressed controls, but there was no additional increase in GroEL levels. Stress proteins may serve as sensitive and rapid indicators of mixed liquor toxicity which can adversely impact treatment process performance, but GroEL may not be a good candidate protein for this purpose due to the lack of a dose/response relationship. Additionally, production of stress proteins did not explain the significant deflocculation upsets that were characteristic of many of the industrially-relevant chemicals tested, including pentachlorophenol and cadmium. Although the purpose of stress response mechanisms is protective at the cellular level, the effect may be disruptive at the macroscopic level in engineered bioreactor systems. The goal of the second research phase was to determine whether the bacterial glutathione-gated, electrophile-induced potassium efflux system is responsible for deflocculation observed due to shock loads of toxic electrophilic (thiol reactive) chemicals. The results indicate significant K+ efflux from the activated sludge floc structure to the bulk liquid in response to shock loads of 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene (CDNB), N-ethylmaleimide (NEM), 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT), 1,4-benzoquinone (BQ), and Cd2+ to a bench-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) system. In most cases, the stressor chemicals caused significant deflocculation, as measured by an increase in effluent volatile suspended solids (VSS), at concentrations much less than that required to reduce the maximum specific oxygen uptake rate by 50% (IC50). This suggests that electrophile-induced activated sludge deflocculation is caused by a protective bacterial stress mechanism (as hypothesized) and that the upset event may not be detectable by aerobic respirometry. More importantly, the amount of K+ efflux appeared to correlate well with the degree of deflocculation. The transport of other cations including sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, and aluminum, either to or from the floc structure, was negligible as compared to K+ efflux. In bench-scale SBRs, it was also determined that the K+ efflux occurred immediately (within minutes) after toxin addition and then was followed by an increase in effluent turbidity. K+ efflux and deflocculation responses were similar for bench-scale SBRs and continuous-flow reactor systems, indicating that the periods of elevated exogenous substrate levels typical in SBR systems are not required to activate electrophile-induced K+ efflux or deflocculation. This also suggests that the initial and rapid efflux of K+ immediately following electrophile addition is the factor that leads to deflocculation, not the increase in bulk liquid K+. Sphingomonas capsulata, a bacterium consistent with that found in biological wastewater treatment systems, Escherichia coli K-12, and activated sludge cultures exhibited very similar dynamic efflux/uptake/efflux responses due to the electrophilic stressors, NEM and CDNB, and the thiol reducing agent, dithiothreitol (DTT). The polyether ionophore antibiotic, nigericin, was used to artificially stimulate K+ efflux from S. capsulata and activated sludge cultures. Thus, glutathione-gated K+ efflux (GGKE) activity may cause K+ release from the cytoplasm of activated sludge bacteria into the floc structure and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and then diffusion-limited transport into the bulk liquid. It was not possible to resolve the effect of the GGKE system on changes in bulk liquid or floc-associated pH. However, calculations indicate that the localized K+ concentration within the floc structure immediately after chemical stress is consistent with that known to induce floc disruption as a result of KCl addition. Using alkaline phosphatase as a periplasmic marker as well as fluorescent membrane-permeable and impermeable nucleic acid stains, it was determined that a negligible amount of the K+ efflux response was due to lysis of activated sludge microorganisms. The current results are very promising and are the first to suggest that activated sludge upset (i.e. deflocculation) may be caused by a specific protective stress response in bacteria. / Ph. D.

High costs for aeration, greenhouse-gas emissions and excess sludge disposal have entailed a paradigm shift in the wastewater treatment. Microalgal-bacterial-based wastewater treatments have gained increasing attention because of their potential in energy demand reduction and biomass resource recovery. In particular, photosynthetic oxygenation is combined with bacterial activity to treat wastewater avoiding external artificial aeration. To optimize the technology in order to become more competitive than activated sludge, an in-depth investigation about the treatment performance and the microbiology interactions under real operational condition is needed. This work focused on the study of wastewater-borne microalgal-bacterial consortia treating real municipal wastewater. The main objectives were to: (i) Understand the removal mechanisms and the influence of operational conditions to optimize the process; (ii) Analyze the microbial community. At first, a photo-sequencing batch reactor (PSBR), called Pilot, was started up and continuously monitored for two years to analyze the evolution of the treatment performance and of the biomass composition. At the same time, other two lab-scale PSBRs were installed to evaluate if microalgal inoculation is essential to start up a consortium. Samples of these consortia were collected over a period of one year and analyzed through microscopic observations, flow cytometry and metagenomics, to investigate the microbial structure and diversity.A second part of the research focused on the optimization of the Pilot to explore its limit in view of the scale-up of the system. In addition, respirometry was adapted to test microalgal-bacterial consortia to estimate the removal kinetic parameters for future modelling. To conclude, the research project addressed many aspects and lay the foundation to apply a methodological research approach to scale-up this promising technology.

The use of simulation as an upgrading tool has been tested on real wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). Currently, the new WWTP have the possibility to monitor some process variables as the flows, oxygen concentrations and, some physical properties as temperature or pH. This thesis has been divided in two main sections: i) the use of the GPS-X software as an upgrading tool for real WWTP and ii) the use of the wavelet filter for the analysis of the online data / Els objectius que es planteja la present tesi doctoral són: i) efectuar una revisió dels models mecanístics de depuració d’aigües residuals, ii) avaluar-ne la fiabilitat en la simulació d’estacions depuradores d’aigües residuals reals, iii) estudiar la problemàtica de disposar de gran quantitat de dades en línia, iv) presentar la tècnica de filtrat de dades amb wavelets i v) avaluar la capacitat de filtrat de les wavelets en les dades disponibles en línia d’una EDAR urbana que enregistra els cabals d’operació i concentracions d’oxigen dissolt en línia

The main goal of this thesis is to expertise biological treatment of sewage water rising from production of DPG (diphenylguanidine). The theoretical part is focused on the water and means of sewage disposal. There is shortly described mechanism of physical, chemical, biological and combinated methods of sewage disposal. In practical part of this thesis, focused on expertising degradation of DPG and aniline was chosen high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) technique, which made it possible to determined their biodegradation abilities. The next component of this thesis are sideline products determination, phenylurea especially. This thesis is focused on monitoring of biofilm´s character and the activity of Rhodococcus erythropolis bacterial culture, used in biodegradation of DPG in chemical-biological wastewater treatment plant, LZD a.s.

Cette thèse a pour objectif d'apporter une meilleure compréhension des mécanismes qui gouvernent le bon fonctionnement et les performances des procédés de dépollution à biomasse fixée et d'en développer leur modélisation. Ces procédés pourraient voir leur efficacité intensifiée si les couplages entre les divers mécanismes locaux qui les gouvernent étaient mieux compris. L'interaction forte écoulement / biofilm dans ces procédés rend très difficile leur modélisation sans des progrès drastiques dans la compréhension de phénomènes intervenant à diverses échelles (biofilm, pore, bioréacteur). En conséquence, un des premiers verrous à lever est d'apporter une meilleure compréhension des mécanismes locaux responsables de l'adhésion, du détachement et de la croissance de micro-organismes sous écoulement. Dans ce but une chambre d'écoulement a été mise au point pour permettre l'observation microscopique et la caractérisation in-situ de ces phénomènes sous conditions hydrodynamiques contrôlées. Le système étudié est une bactérie de Pseudomonas putida et le polluant modèle est du phénol. En conditions non limitantes, nous montrons que les paramètres de la loi de Monod, pour les instants initiaux de croissance du biofilm et les conditions hydrodynamiques en régime très diffusif, sont dépendants du cisaillement imposé, ce qui n'est pas pris en compte dans la plupart des modèles. Des expériences mettant en œuvre l'observation de la croissance du biofilm sous écoulement (à bas Reynolds) ont ensuite permis de montrer la nature hétérogène de la structure du biofilm (structures filamenteuses, distribution de protubérances sur le support solide). Ces structures pourraient entre autre expliquer comment la croissance du biofilm influence le frottement. Pour étudier l'influence de la microstructure sur cette quantité, une technique de reconstruction 3D du biofilm a été développée et mise en œuvre en complément de la microscopie optique directe. La simulation de l'écoulement dans la microstructure ainsi reconstituée et l'ordre de grandeur des perméabilités calculées montrent bien l'importance de la distribution locale de la biomasse sur ce paramètre. / The biofilms, mainly composed of micro-organisms and exopolymers, develop themself on nonsterile wet surfaces. They are of considerable importance in many industrial and environmental applications, among which biofilters used in water treatment. The strong interaction between the flow and the biofilm development in this type of processes returns very difficult their modelling without drastic progress in the comprehension of phenomena appearing on various scales (biofilm, pore, biofilter). This thesis aims to bring a better comprehension of the mechanisms which control the biofilm growth on a local scale. A flow chamber characterized by a laminar flow profile was developed to allow the in-situ observation and the analysis of cell adhesion, detachment and the growth of P. putida bacteria under sheared flow. The results also showed that the growth kinetics measured in batch was not applied, for low Reynolds number in the case of a biomass fixed to solid support and subjected to a shear stress. The study revealed also, as already shown before in certain research tasks, the biofilms organization in response to the sheared flow. The technique of 3d-reconstruction developed and implemented in complement to the direct optical microscopy allowed a better interpretation of global biofilm architecture and have explained how the microstructure can influence the biofilm friction toward fluid flow. We have simulated the distribution of the local velocity profiles in biofilm microstructure and our estimation of permeability has highlighed the importance of local distribution of biomass in this parameter.