Porous Pot and Continuous Activated Sludge Test Systems

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  The Ready Test helps us understand if a material may degrade during wastewater treatment and in the environment. However, this test uses very high concentrations of test compound, which are very often not realistic. To better understand the potential for biodegradation , we frequently use the more sophisticated Porous Pot Test.

In this test, activated sludge from a wastewater treatment plant is brought into the laboratory and exposed to the ingredient for months at a time. The long duration of testing allows acclimation  of the microorganisms to occur.

We typically use a radio labelled test compound that allows us to use very low concentrations of our ingredient and get a good understanding whether the compound will degrade during wastewater treatment and in the environment. Since the porous pots are laboratory scale models of wastewater treatment plants, they provide excellent data on whether a compound will biodegrade and exactly how fast that will occur. Further, we can measure sorption and learn how much of the ingredient will end up on sludge (and eventually on farmers' fields).