Everything you need to know about anaerobic and aerobic wastewater treatment

Biologicalwastewater treatment in Australia reduces or eliminates toxic chemicals, pathogenic bacteria, and provides a palatable water source for agricultural and human uses. The biological treatment uses bacteria and other microorganisms to decompose carbon-containing substances and organic contaminants into volatile and harmless compounds.

Aerobic and anaerobic treatments

Anaerobic microbes are microorganisms and bacteria that function in the absence of oxygen. The microbes break down organic contaminants slower than aerobic microbes. They also produce carbon dioxide, methane end more anaerobic microbes. Anaerobic microbes treat wastewater that has a high level of organic contaminants more efficiently before undergoing treatment with aerobic microbes. 

Aerobic microbes, on the other hand, require organic nutrients and oxygen to grow and work. Nutrients from organic material in wastewater and oxygen are delivered by pumping air into the tank used for treatment. The end products of this process are carbon dioxide, metabolized solids and carbon dioxide that settle out. Oxygen and the nutrients from aerobic wastewater treatment cause aerobic microbes to multiply and the more they are, the faster the digestion process.

Pros of aerobic digestion

Treating wastewater using aerobic digestion in Australia is an efficient and rapid process and removes at least 98% of organic contaminants. The process is a natural oxidation one and causes an efficient breakdown of the pollutants. It also yields a cleaner water effluent than treating water using anaerobic treatment alone. Aerobic digestion is a fast process and this makes it suitable to handle larger volumes of wastewater.

Pros of anaerobic digestion

Biological wastewater treatment in Australia using aerobic digestion is more environmentally friendly compared to aerobic digestion because it requires less energy, produces less biomass and produces methane that can be recycled. Both anaerobic and aerobic treatments produce carbon dioxide but aerobic digestion produces less carbon dioxide. Anaerobic digestion also produces few bio-solids. Bio-solids can produce a disposal problem.