Variable Oxidation Elements in Microbial Oxidation of Organic Water Pollutio

Introduction: Due to significant changes in the composition of municipal and industrial wastewater, observed in the last decade, traditional biological treatment with activated sludge, which has been used for almost 100 years, does not cope with the task of removing numerous substances. Therefore, such technologies need to be improved. Methods: The paper analyzes the experience in application of variable oxidation elements as terminal electron acceptors in microbial oxidation of organic water pollution. Results: Replacing oxygen (traditionally used for biological treatment) with transition elements will allow arranging and conducting treatment under oxygen-free conditions and, thus, reducing energy consumption and, as a result, the cost of treatment. For the purposes of simultaneous mineralization of sewage organic components having different chemical composition, when using various transition elements (present or specially introduced in sewage) as oxidizers, it is required to use mixed cultures of bacteria, maintaining for each of them a range of optimal values of the environment redox potential. Conclusion: Knowledge of principles and mechanisms of oxygen-free transformation of substances is necessary for development of efficient and reliable systems for treatment of sewage and solid wastes from various industrial plants. Experiments and investigations show that studying the existing metabolic possibilities of microorganisms, rather than designing new artificial genetically modified bacteria to be used in biological treatment of water in aerotanks, is a promising direction.