Isolation and selection of microorganisms for the oily effluent remediation of the metalworking industry

Author(s)

Daniel Delgado Queissada

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: Lorena.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL/ASDI)
• Defense date: 2009-09-15

Examining board members

Teresa Cristina Brazil de Paiva; Ana Maria Queijeiro Lopes; Dione Mari Morita; Ann Honor Mounteer

• Advisor: Teresa Cristina Brazil de Paiva

Abstract

The metalworking industry is responsible for one of the most complex and difficult to reuse and handling, oily effluents synthesis. These effluents are made by cutting fluids which provide refrigeration and purification of metallic pieces in the machining system. When these effluents are biologically treated is important to do this with autochthonous microorganisms, therefore the use of these microorganisms (bioaugmentation) tends to be more efficient because they are already adapted to the existing pollutants. The aim of this work was the isolation and selection of remediation microorganisms of metalworking effluent through unit processes (air-lift bioreactor and UV/H2O2 system) and also through their integration. In the biological treatment were used the autochthonous microorganisms from metalworking effluent beyond the use of Aspergillus niger as reference microorganism. The original effluent characterization presented a great pollutant potential. The value of color of the effluent was 1495 mg Pt/L, COD was 9147 mgO2/L, total phenols was 53 mg/L, total solids (TS) was 15666 mg/L, dissolved oxygen (DO) was 2.5 mgO2/L, oil and grease was 887 mg/L and chronic toxicity factor was 1667. Six possible types of filamentous fungi were isolated from the effluent sample. Among them, Epicoccum nigrum and Cladosporium sp were the most efficient in the air-lift reactor treatment. In the air-lift reactor biotreatment the fungus Epicoccum nigrum was the most efficient in the majority of the parameters reductions (of 27% COD, 62% total phenols, 94% H2O2, 44% electrical conductivity and 43% oil and grease) and Cladosporium sp was more efficient in the color reduction (87%). The oxidative treatment system (UV/H2O2) was more efficient than the biological treatment in the reductions of COD (34%) and H2O2 (98%) and increase of the DO (705%). However was less efficient in the reductions of color (74%), total phenols (24%), TS (15%) and electrical conductivity (34%) and reached a similar performance in the oil and grease reduction (45%). On the other hand, the integrated effluent treatment by UV/H2O2 system followed by biological treatment provided an intensification of reductions in all of the evaluated parameters after treatment. Indicating that the photochemistry treatment anticipated to the biological treatment increased biodegradability of the effluent sample, facilitating bioremediation in reactor air-lift. Among the three treatment systems evaluated (biological, UV/H2O2 and UV/H2O2 - biological), the integrated processes utilizing the photochemistry system UV/H2O2 followed by the biological treatment (E. nigrum) was the most efficient. (AU)