The rates of micro-pollutants removals were found to follow
first-order kinetic expression as follow:
lnðCt=C0Þ¼kt ð1Þ
where Co (lg/l) and Ct (lg/l) were the concentrations of toxic
organic micro-pollutants in aqueous solution at initial time and
time t (hours or h). k (h1
) was first order rate constant for the
removal of the micro-pollutants.
Considering the rate constant (k) of the micro-pollutant from
the batch experiment mentioned above, it was found that
removal rate of each toxic organic micro-pollutant by biodegradation
mechanism was adaptively improved. The rate constant
(k) of day 0 of acclimatized sludge from MBR 1 was ranged
between 0.187 and 0.289 h1 and by day 519 was improved
to 0.205–0.362 h1
. As well as the batch experiment of
non-acclimatized sludge from MBR 2, the rate constant (k)
was ranged between 0.124 and 0.216 h1 and improved to
0.171–0.295 h1 by day 519.