A biofiltration model for tertiary nitrification of municipal wastewaters

Achieving advanced nitrogen removal in a novel partial denitrification/anammox-nitrifying (PDA-N) biofilter process treating low C/N ratio municipal wastewater

For achieving mainstream anammox, a novel partial denitrification/anammox-nitrifying (PDA-N) biofilter process to treat municipal wastewater was developed. This process achieved a total inorganic nitrogen (TIN) removal efficiency of 81%, with an average effluent TIN of 7.31 mg·L^-1, when the ratio of influent chemical oxygen demand (COD) to TIN was 3.2. Approximately 97% of the TIN was removed by anammox in the PDA biofilter. Nitrite was provided by partial denitrification for anammox. Partial denitrification was driven by Thaurea in the middle and lower regions of the PDA biofilter, while anammox was mainly driven by Candidatus Brocadia in the middle and upper regions. When treating real municipal wastewater, the TIN was efficiently removed in the PDA-N biofilter, with the effluent TIN of 5.96 mg·L^-1. Anammox played a primary role, achieving approximately 98% of the TIN removal. Compared to the traditional nitrification/denitrification process, this process can economize organic carbon demand and oxygen consumption.

Achieving partial denitrification-anammox in biofilter for advanced wastewater treatment

Recently, partial denitrification (PDN) - anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process has been widely studied in activated sludge for nitrate wastewater treatment. However, achieving PDN-Anammox in biofilter for domestic wastewater treatment was never reported. In this study, two lab-scale PDN biofilter and Anammox biofilter were built up to treat simulated domestic wastewater. The results showed that stable nitrogen removal performance was kept with averaged effluent nitrogen of 10.2 mg/L. Stable nitrite accumulation performance was achieved with low abundance of nitrite reductase gene, while influent composition influenced nitrogen transformation pathway in PDN biofilter. When treating domestic wastewater, nitrification and partial denitrification led to the higher nitrite accumulation ratio of 75.4%. The percentage contribution of anammox biofilter was 74.6% for nitrogen removal, and Candidatus Brocadia was dominant genus. After long-term operation, limited substrate concentration caused interspecific competition among various anammox bacteria, leading to an increasing proportion of Candidatus Brocadia fulgida. PDN-Anammox biofilter is a feasible process to advanced wastewater treatment, which could save aeration consumption and carbon source addition, and reduce sludge production.

Considering the plug-flow behavior of the gas phase in nitrifying BAF models significantly improves the prediction of N2O emissions

Nitrifying biologically active filters (BAFs) have been found to be high emitters of nitrous oxide (N₂O), a powerful greenhouse gas contributing to ozone layer depletion. While recent models have greatly improved our understanding of the triggers of N₂O emissions from suspended-growth processes, less is known about N₂O emissions from full-scale biofilm processes. Tertiary nitrifying BAFs have been modeled at some occasions but considering strong simplifications on the description of gas-liquid exchanges which are not appropriate for N₂O prediction. In this work, a tertiary nitrifying BAF model including the main N₂O biological pathways was developed and confronted to full-scale data from Seine Aval, the largest wastewater resource recovery facility in Europe. A mass balance on the gaseous compounds was included in order to correctly describe the N₂O gas-liquid partition, thus N₂O emissions. Preliminary modifications of the model structure were made to include the gas phase as a compartment of the model, which significantly affected the prediction of nitrification. In particular, considering gas hold-up influenced the prediction of the hydraulic retention time, thus nitrification performances: a 3.5% gas fraction reduced ammonium removal by 13%, as the liquid volume, small in such systems, is highly sensitive to the gas presence. Finally, the value of the volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient was adjusted to successfully predict both nitrification and N₂O emissions.

Hybrid biofilm-membrane bioreactor (Bf-MBR) for minimization of bulk liquid-phase organic substances and its positive effect on membrane permeability

Four biofilm membrane bioreactors (Bf-MBRs) with various fixed carrier volumes (C:M) were operated in parallel to investigate the effect of attached-growth mode biomass involvement to the change of liquid-phase organics characteristics and membrane permeability, by comparing with conventional MBR. The experiments displayed that C:M and co-existence of biofilm with suspended solids in Bf-MBRs resulted in slight difference in pollutants removal effectiveness, and in rather distinct biomass properties and bacterial activities. The membrane permeability and specific resistance of bulk suspension of Bf-MBRs related closely with the liquid-phase organic substance, including soluble microbial products (SMP) and biopolymer cluster (BPC). Compared with conventional MBR, Bf-MBR with proper C:M had a low total biomass content and food-chain, where biofilm formation and its dominance affected liquid-phase organics, especially through reducing their content and minimizing strongly and weakly hydrophobic components with small molecular weight, and thus to mitigate membrane fouling significantly.

Experimental formulation of a kinetic model describing the nitrification process in biological aerated filters filled with plastic elements

The present work reports the results of a series of experimental tests performed on cylindrically shaped biological aerated filters (BAFs) to define a new model for reactors design. The nitrification performance was analysed by monitoring a laboratory pilot plant over a six-month period; the dependence of the nitrification rate from the biomass surface density, from ammonia nitrogen concentration and dissolved oxygen concentration was determined using kinetic batch tests. The controls performed on the pilot plant exhibited a nitrification efficiency of approximately 98% at loadings up to [Formula: see text]. Over this value, the pilot plant performance decreased without a correlation with the applied loads. In response to the inlet ammonia loading increase, the bacterial surface density showed a logistic growing trend. The results of kinetic tests proved that the nitrification rate was not affected by the ammonia nitrogen concentration; instead, a first-order kinetic with respect to the dissolved oxygen concentration was detected. Moreover, it was observed that a minimum oxygen concentration, which was proportional to the bacterial surface density, was necessary to initiate the nitrification process. The reaction rate related to bacterial surface density exhibited an increasing trend that was followed by a subsequent decreasing behaviour. The results of kinetic tests and the identification of the relationship between bacterial surface density and ammonia loading permitted the formulation of a mathematical model to predict BAFs' nitrification efficiency.

Calibration of hydrodynamic behavior and biokinetics for TOC removal modeling in biofilm reactors under different hydraulic conditions

In this study, total organic carbon (TOC) biodegradation was simulated by GPS-X software in biofilm reactors with carriers of plastic rings and glass beads under different hydraulic conditions. Hydrodynamic model by retention time distribution and biokinetic measurement by in-situ batch test served as two significant parts of model calibration. Experimental results showed that TOC removal efficiency was stable in both media due to the enough height of column, although the actual hydraulic volume changed during the variation of hydraulic condition. Simulated TOC removal efficiencies were close to experimental ones with low theil inequality coefficient values (below 0.15). Compared with glass beads, more TOC was removed in the filter with plastic rings due to the larger actual hydraulic volume and lower half saturation coefficient in spite of its lower maximum specific growth rate of biofilm, which highlighted the importance of calibrating hydrodynamic behavior and biokinetics.

Solid respirometry to characterize nitrification kinetics: a better insight for modelling nitrogen conversion in vertical flow constructed wetlands

We developed an original method to measure nitrification rates at different depths of a vertical flow constructed wetland (VFCW) with variable contents of organic matter (sludge, colonized gravel). The method was adapted for organic matter sampled in constructed wetland (sludge, colonized gravel) operated under partially saturated conditions and is based on respirometric principles. Measurements were performed on a reactor, containing a mixture of organic matter (sludge, colonized gravel) mixed with a bulking agent (wood), on which an ammonium-containing liquid was applied. The oxygen demand was determined from analysing oxygen concentration of the gas passing through the reactor with an on-line analyzer equipped with a paramagnetic detector. Within this paper we present the overall methodology, the factors influencing the measurement (sample volume, nature and concentration of the applied liquid, number of successive applications), and the robustness of the method. The combination of this new method with a mass balance approach also allowed determining the concentration and maximum growth rate of the autotrophic biomass in different layers of a VFCW. These latter parameters are essential inputs for the VFCW plant modelling.