Determination of microbial activity in activated sewage sludge by dimethyl sulphoxide reduction - Evaluation of method and application

Sklorz, M. . Lehrstuhl fuer Oekologische Chemie und Geochemie; Binert, J.

Determination of microbial activity in activated sewage sludge by dimethyl sulphoxide reduction - Evaluation of method and application

1994

Sklorz, M. (Bayreuth Univ. (Germany). Lehrstuhl fuer Oekologische Chemie und Geochemie) | Binert, J.

A method was developed to determine the dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) reduction rate in activated sewage sludge at nearly natural conditions. Linearity of microbially produced dimethyl sulphide with incubation time and sample size was shown. Apart from a fast, sensitive and highly reproducible automatic analysis of dimethyl sulphide, simultaneous determination of mineralisation, respiration and phenol degradation rates was possible. The DMSO reduction rate of samples taken from a municipal sewage plant ranged between 2 and 3 micromol/(g dry matter per h), respiration and mineralisation rates between 30 and 80 micromol/(g per h). Added (13)C(6)-phenol was completely degradated after 96 h of incubation. A half-life of 14 h was calculated assuming first order decay. Dose response curves were obtained by incubating samples for 2, 6, 25, and 96 hours after addition of pentachlorophenol. At an incubation time of 6 h, the EC(50) values ranged from 20 mg/L (DMSO reduction) to 30 mg/L (phenol degradation) up to 180 mg/L (respiration and mineralisation). Increasing the incubation time to 96 h resulted in a lower EC(50) of 9 mg/L for DMSO reduction, whereas it increased to 500 mg/L for respiration and mineralisation.

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