Raper, EleanorStephenson, TomSimões, FranciscoFisher, RaymondAnderson, David R.Soares, Ana2018-02-132018-02-132018-02-09Eleanor Raper, Tom Stephenson, Francisco Simões et al. Enhancing the removal of pollutants from coke wastewater by bioaugmentation: a scoping study. Journal of Chemical Technology and Biotechnology, Volume 93, Issue 9, September 2018, pp. 2535-25430268-2575http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jctb.5607http://dspace.lib.cranfield.ac.uk/handle/1826/12986BACKGROUND Bioaugmentation and biostimulation were investigated for their ability to improve the removal of thiocyanate (SCN-), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), phenol and trace metals in coke wastewater. Additionally, the ability of the microorganisms supplemented with the bioaugmentation product to survive in a simulated river water discharge was evaluated. RESULTS A commercially available bioaugmentation product composed mainly of Bacillus sp. was mixed with activated sludge biomass. A dose of 0.5 g/L increased the removal of Ʃ6PAHs (sum of fluoranthene, benzo[b]fluoranthene, benzo[k]fluoranthene, benzo[a]pyrene, indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene and benzo[g,h,i]perylene) by 51% and reduced SCN- below 4 mg/L enabling compliance with the EU Industrial Emissions Directive (IED). Biostimulation (supplementing micronutrients and alkalinity) allowed compliance for both SCN- and phenol (<0.5 mg/L). Bacillus sp. accounted for 4.4% of the microbial population after 25 hours (1.5 g/L dose) which declined to 0.06% after exposure to river water (24 hours). Exposure of the activated sludge biomass to river water resulted in a 98.6% decline in viable cell counts. CONCLUSION To comply with the IED, bioaugmentation and biostimulation are recommended for the treatment of coke wastewater to enable an effluent Ʃ6PAHs of 6.6 μg/L, 0.3 mg/L phenol and 1.2 mg/L SCN-. Such techniques are not anticipated to impact on downstream river water quality.enAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 InternationalBioaugmentationBiostimulationThiocyanatePhenolTrace metalsPolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbonsArticle