| Large volumes of wastewaters are generated by petroleum refining processes and often these wastewaters are toxic in nature. A study was conducted to measure the biodegradability of a petroleum refinery wastewater, using a laboratory-scale automatic respirometer. In order to compare kinetic constants, respirometric studies were also conducted on a municipal wastewater.;The results showed that the municipal wastewater biodegradation kinetics generally followed the Monod equation, but when higher substrate concentrations were used, the kinetics followed the Haldane equation. Biodegradation kinetics of the petroleum refinery wastewater followed only Haldane equation due to highly inhibitory nature of the wastewater.;Use of the Monod equation to the petroleum refinery wastewater yielded negative values for K... |
