Abstract—This study was to investigate phenolic based
pharmaceutical-contaminated wastewater treatment using
activated sludge. Activated sludge was grown and acclimated
using commercial medium with Chemical Oxygen Demand
(COD) of 300 mg/L. Phenol was used as a representative of
phenolic based pharmaceuticals. Duplicate batch experiment
was operated in horizontal shaker at 150 rpm for 8 hr. The
experiment divided into 2 parts: 1) determination of phenol
degradation potential by activated sludge at the concentrations
of 0-100 mg/L and 2) investigation of phenol-contaminated
wastewater treatment efficiency at the phenol concentrations
and COD of 0-100 and 200-5,000 mg/L, respectively. COD,
phenol and mixed liquored suspended solids (MLSS) were
measured hourly. Based on the result from the first part, it was
found that the activated sludge could treat phenol at the initial
phenol concentrations of 10-100 mg/L for 7% to 100%. Higher
phenol concentrations resulted in lower phenol removal
efficiencies. From the second part, the activated sludge could
treat COD of 23-94% and phenol of 0-98%. The result indicated
that both initial phenol concentrations and COD affected
wastewater treatment and phenol removal efficiencies.
Treatment of wastewater contaminating phenol by the activated
sludge followed competitive inhibition kinetic model with Vmax
and KI of 220 mg/L/hr and 200 mg/L, respectively. Based on
MLSS monitoring, activated sludge well grew during the tests.
Index Terms—Activated sludge, competitive inhibition,
phenol, wastewater treatment.
S. Siripattanakul-Ratpukdi is with Department of Environmental
Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen
40002, Thailand and Center of Excellence for Environmental and Hazardous
Waste Management, Bangkok 10330, Thailand (e-mail:
sumana.r@kku.ac.th; jeans_sumana@yahoo.com).
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Cite:Sumana Siripattanakul-Ratpukdi, "Phenolic Based Pharmaceutical Contaminated Wastewater Treatment Kinetics by Activated Sludge Process," Journal of Clean Energy Technologies vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 150-153, 2014.
