Improvement of the assimilable organic carbon (AOC) analytical method for reclaimed water

doi:10.1007/s11783-013-0525-0

Front Envir Sci Eng

2013, Vol. 7

Issue (4) : 483-491 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-013-0525-0

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Improvement of the assimilable organic carbon (AOC) analytical method for reclaimed water

Xin ZHAO¹, Hongying HU^1,2(

), Shuming LIU¹, Feng JIANG³, Xiaolei SHI¹, Mingtang LI³, Xueqiao XU¹

1. Environmental Simulation and Pollution Control State Key Joint Laboratory, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China; 2. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Microorganism Application and Risk Control (MARC), Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen 518055, China; 3. College of Resources and Environment, Jilin Agriculture University, Changchun 130118, China

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Abstract

Microbial growth is an issue of concern that may cause hygienic and aesthetic problems during the transportation and usage of reclaimed water. Assimilable organic carbon (AOC) is an important parameter which determines the heterotrophic bacterial growth potential of water. Pseudomonas fluorescens P17 and Spirillum sp. NOX are widely used to measure AOC in drinking water. The AOC values of various reclaimed water samples determined by P17 and NOX were compared with those determined by the new strains isolated from reclaimed water in this study. It showed that the conventional test strains were not suitable for AOC measurement of reclaimed water in certain cases. In addition to P17 and NOX, Stenotrophomonas sp. ZJ2, Pseudomonas saponiphila G3 and Enterobacter sp. G6, were selected as test strains for AOC measurement of reclaimed water. Key aspects of the bioassay including inoculum cell density, incubation temperature, incubation time and the pH of samples were evaluated for the newly selected test strains. Higher inoculum density (10⁴ CFU·mL^-1) and higher incubation temperature (25°C) could reduce the time required for the tests. The AOC results of various collected samples showed the advantages of the method proposed based on those five strains in evaluating the biologic stability of reclaimed water.

Keywords assimilable organic carbon (AOC) bioassay biological stability reclaimed water test bacterial strains

Corresponding Author(s): HU Hongying,Email:hyhu@tsinghua.edu.cn

Issue Date: 01 August 2013

Cite this article:

Xin ZHAO,Hongying HU,Shuming LIU, et al. Improvement of the assimilable organic carbon (AOC) analytical method for reclaimed water[J]. Front Envir Sci Eng, 2013, 7(4): 483-491.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/10.1007/s11783-013-0525-0
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fese/EN/Y2013/V7/I4/483

Tab.1 AOC values of reclaimed water detected by different test strains

Fig.1 AOC values determined with different test strains for various reclaimed water samples at different DOC levels

Fig.2 AWCD of different kinds of carbon sources in BIOLOG microplates inoculated with different strains

Fig.3 Growth curves of test organisms at different initial inoculum density levels in 1000 μg acetate-C·L solutions: (a) ZJ2; (b) G3; (c) G6

Fig.4 Growth curves of test organisms at different incubation temperatures in 1000 μg acetate-C·L solutions: (a) ZJ2; (b) G3; (c) G6

Fig.5 Growth curves of test organisms in reclaimed water

Fig.6 Maximum cell density of test organisms at different pH condition in 1000 μg acetate-C·L solutions after 3d-incubation

Fig.7 Standard curves results for three test strains (ZJ2: = 0.96; G3: = 0.98; G6: = 0.99)

Tab.2 Coefficients of variation for plate counts with different strains

Fig.8 Flowchart of AOC bioassay for reclaimed water

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