Thermophilic Biological Wastewater Treatment

Thermophilic treatment is one of the advanced treatment technologies used for the purification of high-strength wastewaters. Thermophilic systems are conventionally used for sludge treatment, but their ability to reduce COD to a great extent with sludge generation one-tenth when compared to the other wastewater treatment technologies, have favored its application for wastewater purification. Moreover, it operates at a rate faster than the conventional activated sludge process. Though, thermophilic process offers many benefits; the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of this process are unknown. These characteristics are so different from the conventional activated sludge process, that the knowledge based from conventional operations is unusable. As raising the temperature for treatment would not be cost-effective, thermophilic systems are best suited for industries producing high-temperature wastewater. Thermophilic wastewater treatment technologies need better understanding and research before applying it full-scale for treating wastewaters.