(460e) Investigation of Growth Kinetics of Debaryomyces Hansenii in Petroleum Refinery Desalter Effluent

Leila Azimian ¹, Rebecca Rena Elgrichi ¹, Amarjeet Bassi^*

1. The University of Western Ontario, Graduate Program in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, London, Ontario

^*Corresponding author email: abassi@uwo.ca

Abstract

Crude desalter effluent is oily wastewater with high concentrations of oil and grease and inorganic salts which . In this study, the yeast Debaryomuces hansenii, was cultivated on crude desalter effluent, and simulated desalter effluent with different COD and salt concentrations. The results of this study demonstrated that Debaryomyces hansenii grows well in 100% desalter effluent without using supplementary media. Five dilutions of wastewater (initial COD concentrations 300, 600, 900, 1200, 1000, 2000, and 4000 mg/L) and three different salt concentration (0.57, 0.004, and 1 g/L) were considered for the study. The experimental parameters such as total organic carbon, total inorganic carbon, COD, optical density, total ammonia, nitrate, and phosphate were measured at the end of stationary phase. Biodegradation kinetics was determined for all cases using first-order reaction and Monod degradation equations. Optimal results showed that up to 88% reduction in TOC was obtained for 1200 COD wastewater while only 10% reduction in total organic carbon (TOC) was achieved for 4000 COD wastewaters. Over 80-97% reduction in ammonia and nearly 56% removal of Nitrate were obtained with the 0.57 mg/l salt concentration for all COD dilutions 900 and 1200. This study showed that D.hansenii can successfully degrade desalter effluent with significant removal efficiencies for COD.