Entrapped cell system for decentralized hospital wastewater treatment: inhibitory effect of disinfectants.

This study aims to improve decentralized hospital wastewater treatment inhibited by disinfectants by using calcium alginate cell entrapment technique. The effects of disinfectant types (glutaraldehyde, povidone iodine (PI) and a potassium hydroxide solution) and disinfectant concentrations, cell entrapment conditions (cell-to-matrix ratios) and cell loadings were investigated. The batch experiments were conducted using synthetic wastewater with initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) of approximately 370 mg/L and acclimated activated sludge. Among three disinfectants, PI substantially affected the wastewater treatment efficiency (inhibition of 40%) while other disinfectants exhibited inhibition effects of less than 9%. The results also indicated that the entrapped cells obviously performed better than the free cells. The cell-to-matrix ratio of 1:20 (v/v) provided the highest treatment efficiency of 86% (inhibition of 9%) while the free cell system had inhibition of 47%. The system at the entrapped cell loading of 2000 mg/L performed the highest COD removal of 62% for ten-cycle sequencing batch operation. A scanning electron microscope image provided information on entrapped cell structure subjected to the disinfectant.