Comparative evaluation of yeast and bacterial treatment of high salinity wastewater based on biokinetic coefficients

This paper compares the performance of the aerobic treatment of high organic-high salinity wastewater by yeast and bacterial systems. The biokinetic coefficients for both the systems were determined and used to analyze the behavior of the yeast and bacterial systems under high salinity conditions. It was found that the yeast culture was more efficient compared to the bacterial culture, especially for high salinity conditions that severely inhibit growth and performance of bacterial systems. The values of the biokinetic coefficients obtained from this study are in agreement with the observations. Nutrient removal capacity has also been found to be better for yeast due to higher nutrient uptake in the yeast biomass. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.