Avaliação do uso de um catalisador metabólico na redução da geração de biossólidos em um sistema de tratamento de efluentes do tipo lodos ativados.

The biosolids production in activated sludge treatment systems is a challenge for the dairy plants, either by the amount of diary biosolid generated in the operation, which is depending on the organic load entering the treatment systems, or by the costs inherent to the final disposal of these wastes. In this sense, the study and development of processes that promote the reduction of the production of this residue have been carried out. For example, mention is made of the processes based on theories such as cell lysis/cryptic growth, uncoupled metabolism and endogenous decay. The present work aims to test a commercial product for reduce sludge production in activated sludge systems, based on their reduction efficiency and without producing interference in the performance parameters of the effluent treatment system (full scale), studying their mechanisms of action and verifying dosage concentrations. Three different concentrations of the metabolic catalyst were tested, one being lower, one being higher than that indicated by the supplier. The results obtained in scale, referring to the application of the metabolic catalyst, revealed that the dosage of 3.75 ml/l showed a 29% reduction in biosolid production and 13% of decrease in the final disposal costs. The study may encourage the performance of other experiments that can evaluate the use of the product in other