DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHLY CONDUCTIVE CONCRETE TO ENHANCE BIOLOGICAL OXDATION OF HYDROGEN SULFIDE IN SEWER PIPE

Abstract

 The final objective of this study is to develop highly conductive concrete which effectively mitigates the concentration of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) in sewer pipe. In the first part of this study, using electricity-producing bacteria (EPB) isolated from sewage sludge from a municipal wastewater treatment plant, the influence of inoculation of these EPB on the decrease in concentration of H₂S was evaluated. Experimental results showed that inoculation of EPB could decrease the concentraton of H₂S, meaning H₂S was biologically oxidized by EPB. In the second part of this study, we developed several types of new conductive concrete containing different amount of acetylene black or magnetite as conductive materials, and evaluated their capabilities to enhance biological oxdatation of H₂S. It was found that newly developed conductive concrete with higher conductivity demonstrated higher capability of decreasing H₂S concentration than commertial conductive concrete.