Effect of Slowly Biodegradable Organics on Kinetic Coefficients

Abstract

Measurement of both soluble COD and BOD on activated sludge effluent reveals that effluent organic matter contains a significant quantity of slowly biodegradable organics. These slowly degradable organics exhibit a significant effect on the determination of kinetic coefficients, e.g., the specific substrate removal rate for the multiple substrate model and the first‐order rate constant. The use of effluent soluble COD for estimating the yield coefficient and decay rate, however, is valid under many practical conditions, since concentration of the influent substrate is much greater than that of the effluent substrate concentration.