Study on microwave sterilization in starch wastewater utilization

The characteristic of microwave sterilization on starch wastewater is discussed in this study. It explores the relationships among irradiation time, microwave power, glucose, water volume and total bacterial count in waste water. The morphology of E. coli in wastewater before and after microwave irradiation were analysed by TEM. Experiment results show that, all bacteria in wastewater can be killed and the wastewater can meet the following-up experiments, under the following situations: microwave power of 500 W, waste water volume of 100 mL, flask volume of 250 mL, irradiation time of 3 min, then adding 5% glucose according to needs of waste water utilization and irradiation time of 3 min again (the total 6 min). TEM results show that, microwave can destroy the cell wall and cell membrane, leading to cytoplasmic leakage. The results show that, microwave sterilization can achieve complete sterilization in short time and with low power consumption. And its loss on nutritional composition of wastewater is superior to the loss which is generated in high-pressure steam sterilization.