ABSTRACT
Development of sophisticated industrial societies has led to proliferation of a vast number and variety of complex chemicals for industrial, agricultural, and domestic use. Many of the compounds exhibit toxic, carcinogenic, mutagenic or teratogenic properties. Many compounds of such concern eventually find their way into municipal and industrial wastewaters, and, unless specifically removed by waste treatment processes, ultimately appear in receiving waters and drinking water supplies and can have harmful effects on human and other organisms in the environment. Recent studies have shown that the microbial cells tend to concentrate chemicals from their aquatic environment. The chapter determines the adsorptive capacity of several selected organic compounds onto two types of microbial biomass activated sludge and nitrifying bacteria and to the factors that influence such an adsorption system. The centrifuged tubes of the adsorption equilibrium study were subjected to the desorption study.
