This paper contains a multidisciplinary approach that will contribute to design and properly evaluate a treatment line for complex biorecalcitrant wastewaters. To demonstrate this approach a specific industrial wastewater (cork boiling wastewater, CBW) was used. A treatment line based on a coagulation-flocculation step followed by an Advanced Oxidation Process (AOP) (solar photo-Fenton) and combined with an aerobic biological system was evaluated. Applied microbiological techniques: optical microscopy, plate count, DNA extraction and qPCR, indicated that some communities disappeared after the activated sludge adaptation period to the partially treated wastewater, while communities that did not disappear were damaged: 2-log reduction of total heterotrophic bacteria (THB) and a decrease in DNA concentration from 200 ng/μL to 65 ng/μL were observed. Therefore, chemical and microbiological results obtained along the set of experiments, suggested the inefficiency of the combined treatment option between solar photo-Fenton and advanced aerobic biological systems for CBW. This led to the necessity of applying solar photo-Fenton without combining with biotreatment and with the objective of improving the effluent quality enough for being reused in the own industry. Toxicity tests, based on different organisms (after coagulation-flocculation followed by solar photo-Fenton), showed increase on acute toxicity (from 46% to 71% by respirometric assays) and the development of chronic toxicity (from 21-29% to 83-90% also measured by respirometric assays), made evident the incompatibility of this type of wastewater with a biological treatment even after the application of an AOP.
Keywords: Biological treatment; Cork boiling wastewater; Solar photo-Fenton; Toxicity; qPCR.
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