Biological Destruction of Pollutants in Coke Plant Wastewater: A Review

Literature data on the following topics is reviewed: formation of the wastewater stream at coke plants; the composition of the untreated and treated wastewater; and the physicochemical properties of the pollutants present. The high residual bichromate oxidizability (chemical oxygen demand) of biologically treated wastewater is found to be largely due to secondary pollutants formed in the endogenic respiration of active sludge (intermediate and final metabolites).