Biological treatment of wastewater from a paper company using a packed

Abstract

The purpose of this work is to detect and reduce the heavy metal concentration that pollutes wastewaters outflows from a paper company at the city of Durango, using a biological treatment which is a column with a biofilm of Pseudomonas fluorescens, reported as a paradigm of metabolic versatility, and a key microorganism in the biodegradation of organic matter and heavy metals. When the water composition was analyzed, Pseudomonas fluorescens was spread and then a kinetic essay in flask level established to obtain the time required for the treatment, reporting final reduction percentages of 91.77% for iron, 86.36% for zinc, 77.27% for chrome, between others.
The column worked in continuous flow and aeration conditions of 4.3 m s-1 from inflow and 0.6 m s-1 from outflow, the inoculation was undertaken with 40 l with 10% of inoculums (2x106col ml-1) for 48 h to obtain the biofilm. Subsequently it starts receiving the wastewater flow for 48h. The results exceeded the ones that were obtained at flask level with 99.28% for aluminum, 90.4% for iron, 95.3% for zinc, and 86.04% for chrome. This is considered due the reduction of their valence, adsorption and flocculation, in addition it was observed a substantial odor decrease, and this was because of the presence of organic matter.