Performance evaluation of enriched lab-scale oxidation ponds for treating municipal wastewater

This work aims to examine the feasibility of improving the performance of traditional oxidation ponds by adding acclimatized activated sludge, which has been proposed as an efficient and enriching approach for rapidly increasing the concentration of active biomass in these ponds.On this basis, the treatment system was evaluated by operating two cycles on a lab-scale setup; each experimental cycle was composed of three ponds positioned serially and independent of one another for a comparative study of pollutant removals and determination of which was best, the enriched ponds or non-enriched ponds.The experiment results highlighted that the enrichment leads to high rates of degradation when compared to un-enriched stabilization ponds and obtained better average elimination efficiencies of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH 4 + -N), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) at 89.92%, 91.45%, 49.85%, and 53.63%, respectively.Furthermore, the average removal efficiency of coliforms was 99.98%.The results show that improved waste stabilization ponds offer a practical, independent, and sustainable sewage treatment option for irrigation water supply.