Role of Aerobic Microorganisms Used in Wastewater Treatment

Wastewater management plays a crucial role in providing pollution and odor-free living conditions to humans. In this context, microorganisms are life saviors as they break down the organic contamination from the wastewater. They improve the quality of wastewater and make them suitable for reuse.

In this comprehensive guide, we will learn about aerobic microorganisms in wastewater treatment while covering the definition, types, roles, and benefits of aerobic microbes.

A] What Are Aerobic Microorganisms?

Aerobic microorganisms are single-celled bacteria that use oxygen to grow and survive. The environment where these aerobic bacteria grow and survive is known as an aerobic environment or an aerobic atmosphere. These aerobic microbes harvest energy from cellular respiration using the oxidative phosphorylation and Krebs cycle. 

These microorganisms are used for sewage treatment to break the organic contamination and degrade the complex organic structure of pollutants dissolved in the sewage wastewater. These microbes decompose the organic matter and turn those solid wastes into natural manure to use in agriculture, soil amendments, and compost.

B] Why Is Oxygen Important For Aerobic Microorganisms?

Aerobic microorganisms can not use the oxygen present in the water alone, as they thrive on environmental or dissolved oxygen. The dissolved oxygen increases the degradation of pollutant content rapidly by promoting the growth, reproduction, and cellular respiration of aerobic microbes. Also, infused oxygen speeds up the process of cellular respiration to harvest energy from pollutants dissolved in the contaminated water. 

Apart from that, oxygen plays a vital role in the survival of microbes as environmental oxygen helps break down the organic matter for food production. However, the level of dissolved oxygen decides the frequency of contamination removal from wastewater. 

C] Role of Aerobic Microorganisms in Wastewater Treatment

1. Breakdown Of Organic Matter

Aerobic microorganisms play a crucial role in decomposing or breaking down the organic contamination from the wastewater. They use a specific enzyme that oxidizes the organic compound and breaks down the organic matter. The process of decomposing the organic contamination releases energy through an oxidation process. Microbes use this harvested energy to thrive and evolve themselves. 

2. Removal Of Contaminants

Microorganisms are used as bioremediation agents to remove contamination from the wastewater. They decompose organic pollutants into water, carbon dioxide, and other less harmful compounds. These less harmful compounds are further degraded by the other microbes using the mineralization process. Microorganisms in wastewater treatment such as bacteria, fungi, algae, etc play a vital role in removing the chemical pollutants from the contaminated water such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and other organic chemicals.

3. Breaks Down Complex Chemical Contaminants

Aerobic bacteria thrive in toxic environments surrounded by toxic organic compounds like carbon, phosphorus, sulfur, and nitrogen. They use these toxic compounds to harness energy for their survival. They break these toxic agents to generate energy and thus remove the complex chemical contaminations from the wastewater. 

D] Benefits of Aerobic Microbes 

1. Environmental Benefits

The primary benefit of aerobic microorganisms on the environment is that they recycle the primary elements of living systems such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. They take up these elements and break into organic compounds for the plant’s further use. They play a crucial role in improving wastewater quality and availing this water for various reuse purposes. Through this process, a huge amount of fresh water is saved. 

2. Economic Benefits

Aerobic microorganism plays a crucial role in producing medicines, probiotics, and cleaning sewage wastewater. Sewage treatment plants use various microbes to break down the organic matter and remove harmful pollutants from wastewater. in this process, they convert organic waste into nutrient-rich soil to improve the agriculture processes.

3. Scalability and flexibility

Microbes offer scalability and flexibility in wastewater treatment processes due to their unique characteristics and adaptability. Microbes have high growth and produce a high amount of microorganisms under favorable conditions. This unique characteristic of microbes provides the flexibility to scale the treatment process. Their variable nutrient requirement also provides the flexibility of choosing an efficient environment for treating wastewater.

E] Aerobic Microbes Used In Sewage Treatment

1. Fungi

Fifty species of fungi are used to break down complex compounds such as plastics, pesticides, and several dangerous bacteria. Fungi can be grown easily and handle harsh conditions which makes them suitable microorganisms in the sewage treatment process.

2. Metazoa

Metazoa is a multicellular microorganism that feeds on microbial floc and protozoa. They play an essential role in activated sludge treatment. They remove harmful bacteria through their feeding activities.

3. Protozoa

Protozoa are the most common sewage treatment microbes that play a vital role in purifying wastewater. It improves the clarity and quality of water and maintains the density of the bacterial population. 

4. Bacteria

Aerobic bacteria in wastewater treatment are responsible for fermenting the sewage sludge by decomposing organic pollutants into simpler compounds. They use carbon and nitrogen as an energy source to decompose the organic contamination.

5. Algae

Algae play a crucial role in absorbing the extra amount of nitrogen and phosphorous present in the water system. It is an essential microbe in water treatment that provides oxygen to aerobic bacteria to decompose organic contaminants.

6. Filamentous Bacteria

As the name suggests, these bacteria create a filament-like structure to support the bacterial floc formation. This formation is further used to remove suspended solids from wastewater. The balanced formation of filament structure increases the efficiency of wastewater treatment.

Conclusion

Microorganisms are essential microspecies for treating wastewater. They play a significant role in decomposing and dissolving organic pollutants from wastewater. As various microorganisms have different responsibilities in wastewater treatment, choose those microbes that suit your specific wastewater challenges. 
PureBact is a leading wastewater treatment firm that is committed to delivering quality and sustainable water solutions for your specific wastewater challenges. Contact us today to know more!