| The combined treatment requirements for a high strength phenolic wastewater were examined in batch and semicontinuous anaerobic methanogenic bioassays. Solvent extraction pretreatment and in-situ addition of activated carbon during anaerobic treatment were effective in removing phenol from a coal liquefaction wastewater from the H-coal process.;Further investigation into the role activated carbon performed during anaerobic phenol treatment demonstrated its importance as a biological support, in addition to providing adsorptive capacity for organic (including inhibitory) compounds. The similar study of other support materials (ion exchange resins) which did not possess an adsorptive capacity for organic compounds supported these findings.;Excellent agreement was demonstrated among physical evaluation methods, performance bioassays, radiolabelled cell adsorption studies, and scanning electron microscopy observations in judging the value of the materials as biological supports. The pore capacity and associated surface area were the most important features that encouraged biomass growth on the support materials. This successful evaluation allowed the development of criteria to assess the preference of a support material to provide optimum biomass development by characterizing the physical/chemical features that make an ideal biological support (pore capacity, surface area, substrate adsorptive capacity, and surface chemistry).;The selective pH adjustment of high strength phenolic wastewater followed by diisopropyl ether extraction reduced the phenolic concentration to non-inhibitory levels, and removed non-phenolic inhibitory compounds. The weakly acidic nature of phenol and substituted phenols allows for their selective removal by solvent extraction. Anaerobic bacteria were able to degrade phenol in the solvent extracted wastewater, however, the bacteria exhibited instability under semicontinuous feeding conditions. The addition of activated carbon to the stressed phenol-degrading cultures improved their ability to remove phenol from solution. |
