Methanol removal from methanol-water mixture using municipal activated sludge

Methanol plants produce large volume of wastewater containing less than 10 % methanol during the startup and shut-down operations,such amount is considered as an industrial waste problem. an experimental work has been carried out in order to examine the removal of methanol from methanol-water mixture using activated sludge. the results showed that the methanol was totally consumed by the bacteria as quick as the feed enters the sludge vessel. the bacteria indicated adaption and growth during experiment with adaptation time of 1 hour. however,an inverse effect on bacterial growth has been observed,when the methanol concentration is higher than 5%. © school of engineering,taylor's university.