Spectroscopic and Chromatographic Characterization of Wastewater Organic Matter from a Biological Treatment Plant

Spectroscopic and chromatographic changes in dissolved organic matter (DOM) characteristics of influent and treated sewage were investigated for a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with a biological advanced process. Refractory DOM (R-DOM) was defined as the dissolved organic carbon concentrations of the samples after 28-day incubation for this study. Specific UV absorbance (SUVA), hydrophobicity, synchronous fluorescence spectra and molecular weight (MW) distributions were selected as DOM characteristics. The percent distribution of R-DOM for the effluent was much higher than that of the influent, indicating that biodegradable DOM was selectively removed during the process. Comparison of the influent versus the effluent sewage revealed that SUVA, fulvic-like fluorescence (FLF), humic-like fluorescence (HLF), the apparent MW values were enhanced during the treatment. This suggests that more aromatic and humic-like compounds were enriched during the biological process. No significant difference in the DOM characteristics was observed between the original effluent (i.e., prior to the incubation) and the influent sewage after the incubation. This result suggests that the major changes in wastewater DOM characteristics occurring during the biological advanced process were similar to those for simple microbial incubation.