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Efficiency of Thermophilic Bacteria in Wastewater Treatment

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Abstract

The present work was carried out to assess the efficiency of thermophilic bacteria in wastewater treatment. A consortium of four thermophilic bacterial strains was used in this study. At 50 °C, the thermophilic consortium showed a very high efficiency in removing total organic carbon (TOC), which reached around 79% in 60 h. Removal of phosphorous was relatively low at 15.4%, while removal of nitrogen was about 83% in 60 h of incubation time. Dissolved oxygen was significantly decreased from 3.43 ppm down to 0.13 ppm in the same period. The consortium of mesophilic bacteria grown at 37 °C showed a substantially different performance from the thermophilic consortium incubated at 50 °C. For example, after 60 h of incubation at 37 °C, only 58.5% of TOC, 13.2% of phosphorous and 75.9% of nitrogen were removed, respectively. Dissolved oxygen was decreased from 3.43 ppm down to 0.28 ppm in the same period. Efficiency of removal rate by thermophilic conditions is higher than the mesophilic conditions. Properties such as fast growth of thermophiles (compared to mesophiles) may explain the exceptional ability of these thermophilic organisms in waste removal.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the deanship of research at KFUPM for the financial support of this work under the Project Number DF181033.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Life Sciences, College of Sciences, King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Bassam Abu Baker & Amjad Khalil

  2. Geosciences Department, College of Petroleum Engineering and Geosciences, King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Bassam Tawabini

  3. Center for Environment and Water, Research Institute, King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Mazen Nazal

  4. Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, King Fahd University for Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

    Jameel AlThaqfi

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  1. Bassam Abu Baker
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  2. Bassam Tawabini
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  3. Mazen Nazal
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  4. Jameel AlThaqfi
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  5. Amjad Khalil
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Correspondence to Amjad Khalil.

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Baker, B.A., Tawabini, B., Nazal, M. et al. Efficiency of Thermophilic Bacteria in Wastewater Treatment. Arab J Sci Eng 46, 123–128 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-020-04830-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-020-04830-x

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