The disposal of excess sludge from wastewater treatment plant represents a rising challenge in activated sludge processes. Hence, the minimization of excess sludge production was investigated by increasing the dissolved oxygen in aeration basin. Units of the pilot include: Primary sedimentation tank, aeration basin, secondary sedimentation tank, and return sludge tank. Volume of aeration basin is 360 l and influent flow rate is 90 L/h. Influent of pilot is taken from effluent of grit chamber of Isfahan's North Wastewater treatment plant. The experiments were done on different parts of pilot during the 5 month of study. Results show that increase of dissolved oxygen in aeration tank affect on decrease of excess sludge. Increase of dissolved oxygen from 0.5 to 4.5 mg/L resulted in 25% decrease of excess sludge. Variation of dissolved oxygen affect on settle ability of sludge too. By increase of dissolved oxygen, SVI decreased and then increased. Value of 1-3 mg/L was the adequate range of dissolved oxygen by settles ability of sludge and optimum range was 2-2.5 mg/L. It could be concluded by increasing of dissolved oxygen up to of 3 mg/L, sludge settle ability significant decreased.

One of the most important problems in activated sludge systems, is the excess sludge production in wastewater treatment plants, in which its stabilization and disposal has attracted the most attention to itself. In this research, several procedures to reduce the sludge in aerated systems, especially in activated sludge system is explained. Some of the procedures are 1. Lysis-Cryptic growth which includes alkaline-thermal treatment, ozonation, chlorination, and increasing dissolved oxygen. 2. Maintenance metabolism 3. Uncoupling metabolism 4. Predation on bacteria. Also in this research, for each of the above mentioned procedures, some examples are provided. In some procedures which are most chemically (such as ozonation and uncoupler additions), the amount of excess sludge is reduced to zero. Therefore, the best solution for elimination of excess sludge, has been known as chemical procedures; although economical considerations should always be taken into account.

Removing or decreasing hexavalent Chromium from wastewater to the permitted levels is important due to its non-biodegradation, bioaccumulation, cancer-causing and toxic effects. In this study, biosorption of Cr(VI) from aqueous solutions by Excess Active Municipal Sludge was investigated as a function of initial Chromium (VI) concentration (in the range of 5-90 mg/l), initial pH (in the range of 2-8), agitation speed (in the range of 50-200 rpm), adsorbent dosage (in the range of 2-10 g/l) and agitation time (in the range of 5-480 min) in a batch system. The optimum conditions were found by full factorial design approach. The results showed that the equilibrium time for adsorbent is 120 minutes. Also, sorption data have a good fitness by Freundlich isotherm model and adsorption kinetic is adopted with pseudo-second order model. In batch studies, at optimum condition (90 mg/l initial concentration, pH 2, agitation speed 200 rpm and adsorbent dosage 4 g/l), the adsorption performance was about 96%; the maximum adsorption capacity was calculated about 41.69 mg of Cr/g of adsorbent. Overall, it can be concluded that Excess Active Municipal Sludge, has a good performance as a biological, biodegradable, abundant and low-cost adsorbent for the removal of Cr (VI) from aqueous solutions.

The excess sludge treatment and sludge disposal are major factors to the over-all economy of wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). The ideal solution to the problem of sludge disposal is to combine sludge minimization with contamination removal at the source. In this study, the effect of ozonation, chlorination and 3, 3, 4, 5–tetrachlorosalicylanilide (TCS) to treat part of the return activated sludge flow with the intention of reducing the overall plant yield in a conventional activated sludge pilot, were investigated in a side-stream pilot reactor. It was found that in the case of ozonation 8% g O3/g MLSS, and in the case of chlorination 2% g Cl2/g MLSS produce the best results. In the utilization of TCS method, the excess sludge production was reduced by 80% per day at a TCS dose of 1% g TCS/g MLSS. In all the above experiments a reduction in the volume of the excess sludge was achieved, while the efficiency of removal chemical oxygen demand (COD) from the reactor without the use of those methods was not significantly different.

The excessive biological sludge production is one of the disadvantages of aerobic process such as SBR. So the problem of excess sludge production along with its treatment, and disposal in aerobic processes in municipal and industrial waste water can be seen in many parts of the world even in our country. to solve the problem of excess sludge production , reducing in by oxidizing some of the sludge by Ozone is a suitable idea , thus reducing the biomass coefficient as well as the sewage sludge disposal. In this study, Two SBR reactors with of 20 liter being controlled by on-line system are used. After providing the steady state in the reactors, along the 8 month research sampling and testing parameters such as COD, MLSS, MLVSS, DO, SOUR, SVI, residual ozone and Yield coefficient were done. The results showed that during the solid retention time of 10 days the kinetic coefficient of Y and Kd was 0.58 (mg Biomass / mg COD) and 0.058 (1/day) respectively. At the next stage of research, different concentrations of ozone in one liter of the returned sludge to reactor were used to reduced the excess biological sludge production. The results showed that the 20 mg ozone per gram of MLSS in one liter of the returned sludge to reactor is able to reduce Yield coefficient from 0.58 to 0. 28 (mg Biomass/mg COD), In other words, the biological excess sludge by 52% .but the soluble COD increased slightly in the effluent and the removal percentage decreased from 92 in blank reactor to 64 in test reactor. While the amount of SVI and SOUR in this consumed ozone concentration reduced 9 mgO2/h.gVSS and 20 ml/g respectively. No sludge was seen in the 25 mg ozone concentration per gram of MLSS in one liter of the returned sludge to reactor.

A combination of ozonation and an aerobic biological process such as the activated sludge has been recently developed as an alternative solution for sludge reduction with the objective of minimizing the excess biological sludge production. In this study, two SBR reactors each with a capacity of 20 liters and controlled by an on-line system are used. Once the steady state conditions were set in the reactors, sampling and testing of such parameters as COD, MLSS, MLVSS, DO, SOUR, SVI, residual ozone, and Y coefficient were performed over the 8 months of research. Results showed that during the solid retention time of 10 days, the kinetic coefficients of Y and Kd were 0.58 mg biomass/mg COD and 0.058 1/day, respectively. In the next stage of the study, different concentrations of ozone in the reactor were intermittently used to reduce the excess biological sludge production. The results showed that 22 mg of ozone per 1 gram of MLSS in the reactor was able to reduce the yield coefficient Y from 0.58 to 0.23 mg Biomass/mg COD. In other words, the excess biological sludge reduced by 60% but the soluble COD increased slightly in the effluent and the removal percentage decreased from 92 in the blank reactor to 76 in the test reactor. While the amount of SVI and SOUR for this level of ozone concentration reached 6 mgO2/h.gVSS and 27 ml/g, respectively. No excess sludge was observed in the reactor for an ozone concentration of 27 mg per 1 gram of MLSS.