Elsevier

Water Research

Volume 12, Issue 12, 1978, Pages 1117-1122
Water Research

Surfactant quaternary ammonium salts in aerobic sewage digestion

https://doi.org/10.1016/0043-1354(78)90059-3Get rights and content

Abstract

Four surfactant quaternary ammonium salts (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide, benzyldimethyldodecyl-, didecyldimethyl- and dimethyl-distearylammonium chloride) were investigated for biodegradability in the OECD Confirmatory Test as a sewage treatment plant model. Under these conditions the pattern of their removal was characteristic of the surfactants. In the concentrations these surfactants are normally present in sewage they do not exert any adverse effects on the general purification and nitrification capacity of biological treatment plants.

References (16)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (30)

  • The effects of Moringa oleifera leaf extract as an organic bio-stimulant for the growth of various plants: Review

    2022, Biocatalysis and Agricultural Biotechnology
    Citation Excerpt :

    Nitrogen fertilizers are one of the chemical fertilizers used in the form of a gas or liquid, after a certain period these are converted into salts (ammonium sulfate, ammonium phosphate, and ammonium nitrate) (Michalski et al., 2015). Sewage and treated garbage are common sources of these ammonium salts (Gerike et al., 1978). For environmental safety and to initiate an economic and environmentally friendly cultivation process, organic fertilizers were introduced into the Agricultural systems (Liu et al., 2021).

  • Greywater biodegradability and biological treatment technologies: A critical review

    2021, International Biodeterioration and Biodegradation
    Citation Excerpt :

    In an activated sludge treatment, alkyltrimethylammonium salts are initially biodegraded to trimethylamine by N-dealkylation (Nishiyama et al., 1995); trimethylamine is biodegraded to dimethylamine and formaldehyde in a reaction catalyzed by a non-oxidative demethylase, and further biodegraded to methylamine and formaldehyde by a secondary amine mono-oxygenase (Large et al., 1972; Colby and Zatman, 1973; Nishiyama et al., 1995); methylamine is degraded to ammonia and formaldehyde by a primary amine dehydrogenase enzyme (Hampton and Zatman, 1973); formaldehyde is oxidized to formate by a formaldehyde dehydrogenase found in methylotrophic microorganisms; and formate is oxidized to carbon dioxide in reactions catalyzed by dehydrogenase enzymes. Low concentrations of QACs were found to have primary and some ultimate biodegradability when biomass are acclimatized to them (Gerike et al., 1978). Cationic surfactants are not always removed by biodegradation, as they may adhere to the surface of particulates in sewage sludge due to its negative charge (Scott and Jones, 2000).

  • The role of surfactants in wastewater treatment: Impact, removal and future techniques: A critical review

    2018, Water Research
    Citation Excerpt :

    The concentration of surfactant at which this occurs depends on the specific surfactant but values in the region of 50,000 μg/L for LAS degrading under aerobic conditions are quoted in literature (Mantzavinos et al., 2001; Abu-Hassan et al., 2005). Quaternary ammonium salts, on the other hand, are only degradable if fed into the wastewater treatment plant steadily and at low concentrations in the order of 15,000 μg/L (Gerike et al., 1978). Even below these concentrations it has been noted that a large portion of this surfactant can be sorbed into the sludge, preventing it from being degraded (Abu-Hassan et al., 2005).

  • Accurate assessment of the biodegradation of cationic surfactants in activated sludge reactors (OECD TG 303A)

    2015, Ecotoxicology and Environmental Safety
    Citation Excerpt :

    Monod kinetics should therefore not be used to predict removal of octadecylamine in continuous systems. The Monod model can also not be used to explain findings with dioctadecyldimethylammonium chloride in monitoring studies (Clara et al., 2007; Gerike et al., 1994) and CAS tests (Gerike et al., 1978; Hoechst, 1989), because removal percentages are in the same order even when the CAS influent concentrations differ by a factor of 500 higher. Games and King (1982) showed that degradation of octadecyltrimethylammonium followed apparent first order kinetics over the concentration range of 1–10 mg/L. First order biodegradation rates are common for hydrophobic organic substances in soils and can be explained by desorption, dissolution and/or diffusion (Wick et al., 2001).

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text