Biosensing systems for monitoring aerobic wastewater treatment processes

Biological wastewater treatment processes are dynamic systems which are often exposed to environmental changes resulting in process failure or partial inhibition. Monitoring strategies traditionally used to determine process failure are often inadequate. The analyses of wastewater off-gases using specific and nonspecific gas sensors can provide a non-contact measurement technique for continuous wastewater monitoring. The measurement of the production of dinitrogen oxide (N2O) during wastewater nitrification can be directly related to the degree of nitrification inhibition, whereas the correlation of non-specific gas sensors so called "electronic noses" can be used to discriminant the presence or absence of organic pollutants, such as diesel within a wastewater matrix. These studies have demonstrated that biosensing systems could be further developed to serve a number of potential applications within wastewater treatment, such as early warning of treatment failure and inlet protection for toxicity monitoring.