Hydrolysis of particulate organic matter is known to be a limiting step in biological wastewater treatment. In this work, we used an experimental set-up, which allowed the parallel observation of hydrolysis product formation on the one side and utilization on the other side. The hydrolysis products are characterized by using size exclusion chromatography with online carbon and UV (254 nm) detection. The used particles (size: 25 - 250 μm) originated from municipal wastewater. Here, it is shown that the concentration of high molecular weight organic matter increases over the first three days. During this time, bacteria grow and produce the required enzymes to perform the further degradation. The oxygen utilization rate (OUR) on the other side continuously develops, confirming the presence of easily biodegradable organic matter. In parallel, the amount of bacteria and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) undergoes a certain dynamics, which was visualized by using confocal laser scanning images.

已知颗粒有机物的水解是生物废水处理中的限制步骤。在这项工作中，我们使用了一个实验装置，可以并行观察一侧水解产物的形成和另一侧的利用率。通过使用具有在线碳和UV（254 nm）检测的尺寸排阻色谱来表征水解产物。使用的颗粒（尺寸：25-250μm）来自市政废水。在此显示，在开始的三天内高分子量有机物的浓度增加。在这段时间内，细菌生长并产生所需的酶以进行进一步降解。另一侧的氧气利用率（OUR）不断提高，证实了存在易于生物降解的有机物质。在平行下，