Comparison between biological and chemical treatment of wastewater containing nitrogen and phosphorus (original) (raw)

Effect of solids retention time and wastewater characteristics on biological phosphorus removal

Water science and technology : a journal of the International Association on Water Pollution Research, 2002

The paper deals with the effect of wastewater, plant design and operation in relation to biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal and the possibilities to model the processes. Two Bio-P pilot plants were operated for 2.5 years in parallel receiving identical wastewater. The plants had SRT of 4 and 21 days, the latter had nitrification and denitrification. The plant with 4 days SRT had much more variable biomass characteristics, than the one with the high SRT. The internal storage compounds, PHA, were affected significantly by the concentration of fatty acids or other easily degradable organics in the wastewater, and less by the plant lay-out. The phosphorus removal is mainly dependent on availability in the wastewater of fatty acids but also by the suspended solids in the effluent, which is higher in the plant with nitrification-denitrification, probably due to a higher SVI or denitrification in the settler. The addition of glucose to the influent seems to have an effect on the pe...

The Efficiency of Biological Total Phosphorus Removal Process

Revista de Chimie

This article investigates the efficiency of phosphorus removal in the municipal wastewater treatment plants in five counties of Romania from 2013 to 2017. This study focused on evaluation of the performance of phosphorus elimination using biological methods in order to respect the admissible effluent discharge limits. The yearly average of inflow total phosphorus varies from 3.64 mg/L to 4.22 mg/L comparing with 1.02 mg/ L and 1.59 mg/L the average of outflow. Chemical and biological methods are utilized to remove phosphorus. The efficiency of the numerous process available for the phosphorus removal is quite inadequate by comparing the effluent degree of purification and the removal cost.

Biological nutrient removal in an MBR treating municipal wastewater with special focus on biological phosphorus removal

Bioresource Technology, 2010

The performance of an MBR pilot plant for biological nutrient removal was evaluated during 210 days of operation. The set point values for the internal recycles were determined in advance with the use of an optimisation spreadsheet based on the ASM2d model to optimise the simultaneous removal of C, N and P. The biological nutrient removal (BNR) efficiencies were high from the start of operation with COD and N removal efficiencies of 92 ± 6% and 89 ± 7, respectively. During the course of the experiment P removal efficiencies increased and finally a P-removal efficiency of 92% was achieved. The activity of poly-phosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) and denitrifying poly-phosphate accumulating organisms (DPAOs) increased and the specific phosphate accumulation rates after 150 days of operation amounted to 13.6 mg P g À1 VSS h À1 and 5.6 mg P g À1 VSS h À1 , for PAOs and DPAOs, respectively.

Importance of Particulate Biodegradable Organic Compounds in Performance of Full-scale Biological Phosphorus Removal System

Water Environment Research, 2009

In this study, biological treatment performances of two parallel treatment lines operating with and without primary sedimentation were investigated. The research was carried out in a large-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) process. Influent and effluent of treatment lines were characterized continuously during the study. In addition, anaerobic anoxic and aerobic EBPR activities were investigated by batch tests using fresh activated sludge samples. All of the environmental and operational conditions of the treatment lines were statistically compared. Evaluation of effluent compositions indicated that EBPR performances of treatment lines were significantly different. Results of the research also indicated that settling characteristics of the activated sludge process could be improved significantly with increasing particulate biodegradable organic compound (pbCOD) loading rate. Batch test results revealed that anaerobic, anoxic, and aerobic biochemical reaction rates of activated sludge cultivated on increased pbCOD loading rate were significantly higher compared to activated sludge cultivated on soluble substrate forms. Water Environ. Res., 81, 886 (2009).

Wastewater Treatment: Biological

Rapid urbanization and indiscriminate use of natural resources have placed the environment under increasing stress, and different measures are being implemented to prevent further deterioration. For example, treatment of our wastes and efficient reuse of our resources are prerequisites to further sustainable existence. As such, various waste treatment technologies have developed with the goal of minimizing negative impacts of wastes on the environment while also potentially recovering value from the wastes. Although many technologies exist, biological processes compare very favorably with non-biological processes because of their sustainability potential, including energy production and resource recovery. Further, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus are the main constituents of most wastes, and removal of such elements from waste effluents can reduce environmental stress and minimize ecosystem deterioration. This summary describes typical aerobic and anaerobic biological treatment methods, including activated sludge processes, upflow anaerobic sludge blanket reactors and other anaerobic systems, and biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal systems, which can be used to treat different types of wastes. An emphasis is placed on methods that also have the capacity to generate potential energy as combustible biogas or nutrients from wastes.

CARBONACEOUS, NITROGENOUS AND PHOSPHORUS MATTERS REMOVAL FROM DOMESTIC WASTEWATER BY AN ACTIVATED SLUDGE REACTOR …

Journal of Engineering Science and …, 2009

This paper proposes an environmental engineering method based on biotechnology approach as one of the expected solutions that should be considered to implementing the activated sludge for improving the quality of water and living environment, especially to remove the major pollutant elements of domestic wastewater. Elimination of 3 major pollutant elements, i.e., carbon, nitrogen and phosphor containing the domestic wastewater is proposed to carry out biological method of an anoxic-aerobic reactor therein these types of pollutants should be consecutively processed in three steps. Firstly, eliminate the carbonaceous matter in the aerobic reactor. Secondly, to remove the carbonaceous and nitrogenous matters, it is necessary to modify the reactor's nature from the aerobic condition to an anoxic-aerobic reactor. And finally, when the cycle of nitrification-denitrification is stable to achieve the target's efficiency of reactor by adding the ferric iron into the activated sludge, it can be continued to remove the carbonaceous, nitrogenous and phosphorous matters simultaneously. The efficiency of carbonaceous and nitrogenous matters removal was confirmed with the effluent standard, COD is less than 100 mgO 2 /L and the value of global nitrogen is less than 10 mgN/L. The effectiveness of suspended matter removal is higher than 90% and the decantation of activated sludge is very good as identifying the Molhman's index is below of 120 mL/L. The total phosphorus matter removal is more effective than the soluble phosphorus matter. By maintaining the reactor's nature at the suitable condition, identifying the range of pH between 6.92 and 7.16 therefore the excellent abatement of phosphor of about 80% is achieving with the molar Fe/P ratio of 1.4.

Biological Nutrient Removal in Municipal Wastewater Treatment: New Directions in Sustainability

Journal of Environmental Engineering, 2012

To control eutrophication in receiving water bodies, biological nutrient removal (BNR) of nitrogen and phosphorus has been widely used in wastewater treatment practice, both for the upgrade of existing wastewater treatment facilities and the design of new facilities. However, implementation of BNR activated sludge AS systems presents challenges attributable to the technical complexity of balancing influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) for both biological phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) removal. Sludge age and aerated/unaerated mass fractions are identified as key parameters for process optimization. Other key features of selected BNR process configurations are discussed. Emerging concerns about process sustainability and the reduction of carbon footprint are introducing additional challenges in that influent COD, N, and P are increasingly being seen as resources that should be recovered, not simply removed. Energy recovery through sludge digestion is one way of recovering energy from influent wastewater but which presents a specific challenge for BNR: generation of sidestreams with high nutrient and low COD loads. Technologies designed specifically to treat these side-stream loads are overviewed in this paper. Finally, relatively high levels of nitrous oxide emissions, a powerful greenhouse gas, have been shown to occur in the BNR process under certain conditions, particularly in the presence of high nitrite concentrations. The advantages of using process modeling tools is discussed in view of optimizing BNR processes to meet effluent requirements and to meet goals of sustainability and reducing carbon footprints.

Long term operation of pilot-scale biological nutrient removal process in treating municipal wastewater

Bioresource Technology, 2009

The performance of a pilot-scale biological nutrient removal process has been evaluated for 336 days, receiving the real municipal wastewater with a flowrate of 6.8 m 3 /d. The process incorporated an intermittent aeration reactor for enhancing the effluent quality, and a nitrification reactor packed with the porous polyurethane foam media for supporting the attached-growth of microorganism responsible for nitrification. The observation shows that the process enabled a relatively stable and high performance in both organics and nutrient removals. When the SRT was maintained at 12 days, COD, nitrogen, and phosphorus removals averaged as high as 89% at a loading rate of 0.42-3.95 kg COD/m 3 d (corresponding to average influent concentration of 304 mg COD/L), 76% at the loading rate of 0.03-0.27 kg N/m 3 d (with 37.1 mg TN/L on average), and 95% at the loading rate of 0.01-0.07 kg TP/m 3 d (with 5.4 mg TP/L on average), respectively.

The relationship between operational and bioavailable phosphorus fractions in effluents from advanced nutrient removal systems

International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology

Because different phosphorus (P) forms vary greatly in their bioavailability, total phosphorus concentrations are a problematic predictor of the eutrophication potential of natural surface waters and wastewater treatment facility effluents. It is currently not known which operational P characterizations (i.e., dissolved/particulate and reactive/non-reactive) best predict effluent P bioavailability. We characterized the P speciation and directly measured the bioavailability of P (BAP) using algal bioassays for 14 full-scale advanced nutrient removal wastewater treatment plants representing a wide range of P removal technologies. A strong statistical relationship was observed between the effluent total BAP (tBAP) and total reactive P (TRP) (r 2 & 0.81), with a tBAP/TRP ratio of 0.61 ± 0.24, indicating that TRP can be used as a conservative surrogate predictor of tBAP. A comparison of different operational categories for phosphorus indicated that sBAP is consistently lower than both soluble P (SP) and soluble reactive P (SRP) with average ratios of 0.34 ± 0.19 and 0.62 ± 0.27, respectively. This shows a large fraction of the dissolved non-reactive P (i.e., SP-SRP), and C40 % of the P classified as SRP was not bioavailable. Total BAP concentrations were on average 30 % higher than soluble BAP (sBAP) concentrations, indicating that the particulate P fraction was an important component of the BAP for the tested effluents. Comparisons between different P removal technologies suggest the bioavailability, and P species composition varies with the nutrient removal process, and that in many cases, a large portion ([60 %) of the effluent P is recalcitrant to algal growth.