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Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology
School of Engineering
Department of Chemical Engineering
Selected Highlights from Research Findings
The contamination of wastewater by toxic heavy metals is a worldwide environmental problem. Heavy metals that migrate to domestic wastewater from industrial and mining activities have a detrimental effect on the activity of cultures used in biological wastewater treatment processes. This project evaluated the toxic effects of copper, zinc and lead on a mixed microbial culture isolated from the Tshwane municipal wastewater treatment plant. The culture activity in the presence of these toxins was monitored by successively increasing the metal concentration and measuring the growth pattern. The culture exhibited a high degree of tolerance to copper and zinc concentrations in excess of 300ppm. This result implies that the microbial populations found in the local wastewater treatment plant is fairly resistant to inhibition by high heavy metal concentration. Further research would focus on trying to understand the fundamental reasons for this observation. The knowledge gained from this exercise should contribute to understanding the effect of toxic metals on process performance during biological wastewater treatment.
Contact person: null MA Jaffer.
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