Nitrogen and phosphorus removal in pilot-scale anaerobic-anoxic oxidation ditch system

To achieve high efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus removal and to investigate the rule of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification phosphorus removal （SNDPR）, a whole course of SNDPR damage and recovery was studied in a pilot-scale, anaerobicanoxic oxidation ditch （OD）, where the volumes of anaerobic zone, anoxic zone, and ditches zone of the OD system were 7, 21, and 280 L, respectively. The reactor was fed with municipal wastewater with a flow rate of 336 L/d. The concept of simultaneous nitrification and denitrification （SND） rate （rSND） was put forward to quantify SND. The results indicate that： （1） high nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiencies were achieved during the stable SND phase, total nitrogen （TN） and total phosphate （TP） removal rates were 80% and 85%, respectively; （2） when the system was aerated excessively, the stability of SND was damaged, and rSND dropped from 80% to 20% or less; （3） the natural logarithm of the ratio of NOx to NH4^＋ in the effluent had a linear correlation to oxidation-reduction potential （ORP）; （4） when NO3^- was less than 6 mg/L, high phosphorus removal efficiency could be achieved; （5） denitrifying phosphorus removal （DNPR） could take place in the anaerobic-anoxic OD system. The major innovation was that the SND rate was devised and quantified.

Simultaneous phosphorus and nitrogen removal in a continuous-flow two-sludge system

The ability of simultaneous biological phosphorus and nitrogen removal was investigated in a lab-scale continuous-flow two-sludge system. Alternating anaerobic and anoxic conditions were combined with contact oxidation stage for treating raw municipal wastewater. Long-term experiments showed that the contradiction of competing for the organic substrate between denitrifying bacteria and PAOs （phosphorus accumulating organisms） in traditional phosphorus and nitrogen removal system has been resolved. The system can adapt to low influent COD/TN ratio （C/N）. Furthermore the SRT （sludge retention time） of nitrifying sludge and denitrifying phosphorus removal sludge can be controlled at optimal conditions respectively. The removal efficiency of COD, TP, TN, and NH4-N was 81.78%, 92.51%, 75.75%, and 84.47% respectively. It was also found that the appropriate influent C/N should be controlled at the range of 3.8-6, while the optimal C/N to the system ranged between 4-5, and the BFR （bypass sludge flow rate） should be controlled at 0.35 around.

Optimum operation conditions of nitrogen and phosphorus removal by a biofilm-activated-sludge system

In the biofilm and activated sludge combined system, denitrifying bacteria attached on the fibrous carriers in the anoxic tank, while the sludge containing nitrifying and phosphorus removal bacteria was only recirculated between the aerobic and anaerobic tanks. Therefore, the factors affected and restricted nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal in a traditional A/A/O process were resolved. This paper describes the optimum operation conditions for nitrogen and phosphorus removal using this system.

Performance evaluation of a modified step-feed anaerobic/anoxic/oxic process for organic and nutrient removal

A pilot scale modified step-feed process was lmproved to increase nutrient/N ano P） ano organic removal operations from municipal wastewater. It combined the step-feed process and a method named ＂University of Cape Town （UCT）＂. The effect of nutrient ratios and inflow distribution ratios were studied. The highest uptake efficiency of 95% for chemical oxygen demand （COD） has been achieved at the inflow distribution ratio of 40/35/25. However, maximum removal efficiency obtained for total nitrogen （TN） and phosphorus at 93% and 78%, respectively. The average mixed liquor suspended solids （MLSS） was 5500 mg·L- 1. In addition, convenient values for dissolved oxygen （DO） concentration, and pH were obtained throughout different stages. The proposed system was identified to be an appropriate enhanced biological nutrient removal process for wastewater treatment plants owing to relatively high nutrient removal, sturdy sludge settle ability and COD removal.

Enhanced Nutrient Removal with Upflow Biological Aerated Filter for Reclaimed Water

A two-stage upflow biological aerated filter was designed as an advanced treatment process to optimize the operating parameters and study the correlative factors influencing the efficiency of nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal. The experimental results showed that the final effluent of the two-stage upflow biofilter process operated in series could meet the stringent limits of the reclaimed water for the total nitrogen of 2 mg/L, and total phosphorus of 0.3 mg/L. The high treatment efficiency allowed the reactor operating at very high hydraulic loadings and reaching nearly complete nitrification and denitrifieation.

Developement of processes for nutrient removal from wastewater

This review focuses on techniques for achieving very low concentration of TN and TP in water.The 1970 Clean Water Act in the US and the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive in Europe now provide the benchmark standards for TN and TP levels.Arden and Lockett discovered activated sludge in the 1910’s.Since then,many improvements have been made to the biological treatment process to provide various configurations that have the ability to deliver effluent concentrations between 6-8mg TN/L and 0.5-1.0mg TP/L,without external carbon addition.Typically,however,additional advanced nutrient removal technologies are used in tertiary treatment to meet more stringent effluent quality requirements.One advanced technology that has been successfully implemented in the US is denitrifying filters.For TP removal,tests showed that the BlueP RO and CoM ag systems both reliably met an effluent target as low as 0.04 mg TP/L.However,the establishment of stringent TN and TP effluent limits will dramatically increase the capital and operational costs of wastewater treatment plants.A more promising nutrient capturing process is based on the assimilation of nutrients(both N and P)during heterotrophic growth which uses a carbon source for energy.Laboratory trials of the single step process by Reach Green suggest that concentrations as low as 0.5 mg TN/L and 0.02mg TP/L are readily achievable.

Simultaneous denitrification and denitrifying phosphorus removal in a full-scale anoxic–oxic process without internal recycle treating low strength wastewater

Performance of a full-scale anoxic-oxic activated sludge treatment plant（4.0×10-5 m-3/day for the first-stage project） was followed during a year.The plant performed well for the removal of carbon,nitrogen and phosphorus in the process of treating domestic wastewater within a temperature range of 10.8℃ to 30.5℃.Mass balance calculations indicated that COD utilization mainly occurred in the anoxic phase,accounting for 88.2% of total COD removal.Ammonia nitrogen removal occurred 13.71% in the anoxic zones and 78.77% in the aerobic zones.The contribution of anoxic zones to total nitrogen（TN） removal was 57.41%.Results indicated that nitrogen elimination in the oxic tanks was mainly contributed by simultaneous nitrification and denitrification（SND）.The reduction of phosphorus mainly took place in the oxic zones,51.45% of the total removal.Denitrifying phosphorus removal was achieved biologically by 11.29%.Practical experience proved that adaptability to gradually changing temperature of the microbial populations was important to maintain the plant overall stability.Sudden changes in temperature did not cause paralysis of the system just lower removal efficiency,which could be explained by functional redundancy of microorganisms that may compensate the adverse effects of temperature changes to a certain degree.Anoxic-oxic process without internal recycling has great potential to treat low strength wastewater（i.e.,TN 〈 35 mg/L） as well as reducing operation costs.

Nitrous oxide emission by denitrifying phosphorus removal culture using polyhydroxyalkanoates as carbon source

Nitrous oxide （N2O） emission has been reported to be enhanced during denitrification when internally-stored compounds are used as carbon sources. However, negligible N2O emissions have been detected in the few studies where polyhydroxyalkanoates （PHA） were specifically used. This study investigated and compared the potential enhancement of N2O production, based on utilization of an internally-stored polymer and external carbon （acetate） by a denitrifying phosphorus removal culture. Results indicated that at relatively low chemical oxygen demand-to-nitrogen （COD/N） ratios, more nitrite was reduced to N2O in the presence of an external carbon source as compared to an internal carbon source （PHA）. At relatively higher COD/N ratios, similar N2O reduction rates were obtained in all cases regardless of the type of carbon source available. N2O reduction rates were, however, generally higher in the presence of an internal carbon source. Results from the study imply that when the presence of an external carbon source is not sufficient to support denitrification, it is likely competitively utilized by different metabolic pathways of denitrifying polyphosphate accumulating organisms （DPAOs） and other ordinary denitfifiers. This study also reveals that the consumption of PHA is potentially the rate-limiting step for N2O reduction during denitrification.

Hypothesis for metabolites of denitrifying phosphate accumulating organisms by the restriction of denitrifying bacteria in anoxic phase

The objective of this work is to verify a hypothesis that nitrite accumulation comes from the metabolites of denitrification phosphate accumulating organisms (DPAOs),not denitrifying bacteria.On the precondition of the restriction of denitrifying bacteria in anoxic phase,static experimental test was designed using NO3-as electron acceptor,effluent was removed after sedimentation in anaerobic phase,and the same concentration solution of PO43--P was returned,so that TOC was excluded and denitrification was inhibited in the next phases.A parallel experiment was carried out simultaneously with the normal anaerobic-anoxic progress.The results showed that,in static test,by keeping the normal growth of DPAO and inhibiting denitrification of denitrifying bacteria,P-release in anaerobic and P-uptake in anoxic phase proceeded normally.DPAO had obvious effect on P-removal and the P-removal efficiency was 69%.The effluent concentration of NO3--N and NO2--N was 7.62 mg/L and 6.05 mg/L respectively,compared with parallel experiments,and nitrogen removal rate was lower.No nitrite residue was found in parallel test.Therefore,it can confirm the hypothesis that the metabolites of DPAO are both nitrogen and nitrite when nitrate is taken as electron acceptor,and nitrite is subsequently converted to nitrogen by denitrifying bacteria.

Denitrification and phosphorus uptake by DPAOs using nitrite as an electron acceptor by step-feed strategies

Denitrifying phosphorus accumulating organ- isms （DPAOs） using nitrite as an electron acceptor can reduce more energy. However, nitrite has been reported to have an inhibition on denitrifying phosphorus removal. In this study, the step-feed strategy was proposed to achieve low nitrite concentration, which can avoid or relieve nitrite inhibition. The results showed that denitrification rate, phosphorus uptake rate and the ratio of the phosphorus uptaken to nitrite denitrified （anoxic P/N ratio） increased when the nitrite concentration was 15 rag. L-1 after step- feeding nitrite. The maximum denitrification rate and phosphorus uptake rate was 12.73 mg NO2-N.g MLSS- 1· h- 1 and 18.75 mg PO34--P- g MLSS- 1. h- 1, respec- tively. These rates were higher than that using nitrate （15 mg. L-l） as an electron acceptor. The maximum anoxic P/N ratio was 1.55 mg PO43- -Pmg NO2-N-1. When the nitrite concentration increased from 15 to 20 mg NO2 -N ~ L-I after addition of nitrite, the anoxic phosphorus uptake was inhibited by 64.85%, and the denitrification by DPAOs was inhibited by 61.25%. Denitrification rate by DPAOs decreased gradually when nitrite （about 20 mg · L-1） was added in the step-feed SBR. These results indicated that the step-feed strategy can be used to achieve denitrifying phosphorus removal using nitrite as an electron acceptor, and nitrite concentration should be maintained at low level （ 〈 15 mg. L-1 in this study）.

Cassava stillage and its anaerobic fermentation liquid as external carbon sources in biological nutrient removal

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of one kind of food industry effluent, cassava stillage and its anaerobic fermentation liquid, on biological nutrient removal （BNR） from municipal wastewater in anaerobic- anoxic-aerobic sequencing batch reactors （SBRs）. Experiments were carried out with cassava stillage supernatant and its anaerobic fermentation liquid, and one pure compound （sodium acetate） served as an external carbon source. Cyclic studies indicated that the cassava by-products not only affected the transformation of nitrogen, phosphorus, poly-13-hydroxyalkanoates （PHAs）, and glycogen in the BNR process, but also resulted in higher removal efficiencies for phosphorus and nitrogen compared with sodium acetate. Furthermore, assays for phosphorus accumulating or- ganisms （PAOs） and denitrifying phosphorus accumulating organisms （DPAOs） demonstrated that the proportion of DPAOs to PAOs reached 62.6% （Day 86） and 61.8% （Day 65） when using cassava stillage and its anaerobic fer- mentation liquid, respectively, as the external carbon source. In addition, the nitrate utilization rates （NURs） of the cassava by-products were in the range of 5.49-5.99 g N/（kg MLVSS.h） （MLVSS is mixed liquor volatile suspended solids） and 6.63-6.81 g N/（kg MLVSS.h）, respectively. The improvement in BNR performance and the reduction in the amount of cassava stillage to be treated in-situ make cassava stillage and its anaerobic fermentation liquid attractive alternatives to sodium acetate as external carbon sources for BNR processes.

Effect of the C:N:P ratio on the denitrifying dephosphatation in a sequencing batch biofilm reactor(SBBR)

A series of investigations were conducted using sequencing batch biofilm reactor（SBBR） to explore the influence of C：N：P ratio on biological dephosphatation including the denitrifying dephosphatation and the denitrification process.Biomass in the reactor occurred mainly in the form of a biofilm attached to completely submerged disks.Acetic acid was used as the source of organic carbon.C：N：P ratios have had a significant effect on the profiles of phosphate release and phosphate uptake and nitrogen removal.The highest rates of phosphate release and phosphate uptake were recorded at the C：N：P ratio of 140：70：7.The C：N ratio of 2.5：1 ensured complete denitrification.The highest rate of denitrification was achieved at the C：N：P ratio of 140：35：7.The increase of nitrogen load caused an increase in phosphates removal until a ratio C：N：P of 140：140：7.Bacteria of the biofilm exposed to alternate conditions of mixing and aeration exhibited enhanced intracellular accumulation of polyphosphates.Also,the structure of the biofilm encouraged anaerobic-aerobic as well as anoxic-anaerobic and absolutely anaerobic conditions in a SBBR.These heterogeneous conditions in the presence of nitrates may be a significant factor determining the promotion of denitrifying polyphosphate accumulating organism（DNPAO） development.