Sensor Technology for Water Quality Monitoring: Bioluminescent Microorganisms (WERF Report Series)

Biological wastewater treatment plants can be adversely affected by influent toxicity. The effects can range from poor clarifier biomass settling and elevated effluent BOD and ammonia levels to total plant kills. These problems could be minimized or eliminated if an effective method existed for continuously monitoring biological wastewater treatment plant influent for toxicity to the treatment plant microorganisms. Current influent screening methods have not been proven to be adequate for adaptation to continuous screening in the field. The primary reasons include the batch-wise nature of the assays and an inadequate correlation between the assays and plant performance. The goal of the research team was to create new bioluminescent biosensors from different types of bacteria found in biological wastewater treatment plants for the development of a multi-channel continuous monitoring system. A system built from multiple biosensors would make it possible to differentiate between potential influent toxicity effects to different classes of bacteria (such as nitrifying and heterotrophic bacteria).