The procedures used to acclimate activated sludges for design criteria were reviewed. Experiments were performed to determine if cultures could be developed with the same characteristics as activated sludge from an actual treatment plant. Acclimation studies were performed with three refinery wastes. The resultant mixed cultures were compared, using removal rates, with activated sludge mixed cultures from the refinery's waste treatment plants. Soluble organic carbon was monitored for the removal rate curves. An acclimation procedure is proposed to be used in design studies so that a designer can place confidence limits on design data obtained from the batch reactor studies.

Master of Engineering (MEngr)

Thesis