Treatment of Tobacco Dust Leachate by Activated Sludge – Evaluation of Biokinetic Parameters

M. Vuković Domanovac, I. Ćosić, M. Sojčić and F. Briški

Abstract
Treatment of tobacco dust leachate represents an important problem because of high concentrations of organic compounds. Experiments were carried out in a batch conditions at initial concentrations of activated sludge of 3.1 g dm–3 (Exp.1) and 6.0 g dm–3 (Exp.2) and different initial concentrations of organic matter in leachate, expressed as COD concentrations, which were in range from 500 to 5000 mg dm–3. Efficiency of biodegradation process was approximately 89.4 % of COD removal. The kinetic parameters, maximum specific growth rate (μmax), substrate saturation constant (Ks) and overall yield coefficient (Y), during experiments were found to be 0.088 h–1, 4241 mg dm–3, and 0.400 mg mg–1 for Exp. 1; and 0.052 h–1, 3168 mg dm–3, and 0.257 mg mg–1 for Exp. 2, respectively. Monod model gives very good fits to experimental data, accompanied by a high regression coefficient (R2).

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Keywords
Tobacco dust, leachate, activated sludge, biodegradation