A fast growing filamentous organism was isolated from the water of a polluted stream through the edge of Seoul city and triedto utilize in treating waste-water. The organism was identified as a species belonging to genus $\mbox{\underline{HUMICOLA}}$ which is a member of Imperfect Fungi.
The newly isolated $\mbox{\underline{Humicola}}$ sp. could grow in an artificial sewage formulated with minerals and sucrose as a sole organic nutrient with specific growth rate of 0.18 per hour which is much higher than that of average filamentous bacteria naturally growing in sewage. The organism could utilize starch and cellulosic materials also.
When the culture was agitated by passing air through the bottom of a fermentor the mycelia flocculated into small balls and showed tendency to settle down when the flow stopped. Furthermore, the mycelia of the organism contained high level of protein which occupied about 60% of the dry cell weight.
The high growth rate on diversified carbon sources, automatic settlement, and the high protein content, qualified the $\mbox{\underline{Humicola}}$ sp. as an organism to be used in treating wastewaters. A specially designed continuous reactor of tower type having 9.4 liters of working capacity was constructed and trials to treat an artificial sewage in it were made.
The organism could remove 92% of original COD of the aritficial sewage when the tower reactor operated with dilution rate of 0.18 per hour at 24℃. Under this condition the system could operate stably even under non-aseptical conditions. With a bench scale reactor of the conventional activated sludge process, a dilution rate of 0.06 per hour was needed for the 92% removal of COD of the same artificial sewage. The retention time for the two systems to obtain the 92% removal of COD were thus to be 5.5 and 16.6 hours, respectively. The fact indicated that the wastewater treatment efficiency of the newly constructed tower reactor with $\mbox{\underline{Humicola}}$ sp. was about three times higher than that of conventional activated sludge process with natural sewage flora. Optimum biomass recovery of 4.7 g per day was also made as a by-product in operating the new system. The system showed another advantage in elliminating bukiing problem frequently associated with the conventional activated sludge process.
홍릉천의 오염하수로부터 $\mbox{\underline{Humicola}}$ 속(불완전곰팡이)을 분리, 동정하고 그 특성을 규명하여 폐수 처리에 사용하였다.
$\mbox{\underline{Humicola}}$ sp. 의 성장속도를 설탕, 질소분, 인산분과 무기물질을 조성으로 하는 인공폐수를 사용하여 성장속도를 비교하였을때 bulking 현상의 주 미생물인 Sphaerotilus natans 보다 약 3배 빠름을 알 수 있었다.
$\mbox{\underline{Humicola}}$ sp. 의 특성은 다양한 탄소원을 이용하여 불리한 pH 조건하에서도 생장하고 시스템 응용시 펠렛을 형성하여 침전하는 장점이 있었고 균사단백질 함량이 약 60% 정도로 동물사료로서의 이용 가능성이 있었다.
$\mbox{\underline{Humicola}}$ sp. 를 새로이 고안한 탑형시스템에 적용하여 인공폐수의 처리효율을 알아보았다.
시스템의 희석속도를 시간당 0.18로 하였을때 92% 의 적절한 처리효율을 보였는데 이는 기존시스템의 처리효율과 비교시 약 3배의 처리속도가 빠름을 알 수 있었다. 새로운 시스템에서 희석속도를 시간당 0.18로 고정하여 생체량 회수를 1일 4회로 하였을때 95% 적정처리효율을 나타내었으며 이때 회수된 건조 체량은 4.7그램 이었다. (4리터 회수시)
