A taxa de consumo de oxigênio como parâmetro de avaliação da toxicidade de efluentes industriais.

Abstract

The activated sSudge system of the Central Treatment Plant for Effluents at CETREL, receives the organic wastewater of fifty five industries of the Petrochemical Complex of Camaçari. Some of these effluents contain organic compounds of toxic material, classified by the Environmental Protection Agency as priority pollutants. The presence of these pollutants in the watewaters treated by CETREL may inhibit the sludge activity, thus reducing the removal efficiency of organic material in the system. For this reason it is of utmost importance for CETREL to control the toxicity of the wastewaters before these reach the biological treatment plant. In this thesis a method is developed to evaluate semiquantitatively the degree of the sludge inhibition, using the oxygen uptake rate as the fundamental parameter. Also in this thesis the inhibition degree of some industrial effluents contributing to CETREL is evaluated.