Impact of heat-treatment on wastewater analytical parameters
Raw wastewater analysis is an important step in treatment assessment; however, it is associated with risks of personnel exposure to pathogens. Such risks are enhanced during virus outbreaks, such as the COVID pandemic, and heat-treatment is a commonly used mitigation measure. We examined whether hea...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IWA Publishing
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Water Science and Technology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://wst.iwaponline.com/content/88/11/2931 |
| Summary: | Raw wastewater analysis is an important step in treatment assessment; however, it is associated with risks of personnel exposure to pathogens. Such risks are enhanced during virus outbreaks, such as the COVID pandemic, and heat-treatment is a commonly used mitigation measure. We examined whether heat-treatment compromises wastewater analytical parameters results. We found that heat-treatment of blackwater at 60 °C for 90 min in capped containers yielded no statistically different values (p > 0.05) for pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia (NH3), total nitrogen (TN), total suspended solids (TSS), and turbidity for specimens from three different sources. This heat-treatment inactivated coliform bacteria (>4 log10 reduction) thus compromising the measurement of commonly used fecal contamination indicators. The observation of intact helminth eggs in heat-treated specimens suggests that the helminth egg enumeration assay is not compromised. These findings indicate that heat-treatment for the safe handling of wastewater, as may be needed in future virus outbreaks, does not affect the measurements of many common wastewater physico-chemical properties.
HIGHLIGHTS
Heat-treatment of wastewater was used as a personnel safety measure during the COVID-19 pandemic.;
We examined whether heat-treatment compromises wastewater analytical parameters.;
Heat-treatment yielded no statistical difference in pH, organics, nitrogen, and solid content values.;
Heat-treatment significantly degraded the fecal coliform enumeration results, but helminth egg enumeration may be possible.; |
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| ISSN: | 0273-1223 1996-9732 |