Wastewater treatment with submerged fixed bed biofilm reactor systems--design rules, operating experiences and ongoing developments.

Wastewater treatment systems using bio-films that grow attached to a support media are an alternative to the widely used suspended growth activated sludge process. Different fixed growth biofilm reactors are commercially used for the treatment of municipal as well as industrial wastewater. In this paper a fairly new fixed growth biofilm system, the submerged fixed bed biofilm reactor (SFBBR), is discussed. SFBBRs are based on aerated submerged fixed open structured plastic media for the support of the biofilm. They are generally operated without sludge recirculation in order to avoid clogging of the support media and problems with the control of the biofilm. Reactor and process design considerations for these reactors are reviewed. Measures to ensure the development and maintenance of an active biofilm are examined. SFBBRs have been applied successfully to small wastewater treatment plants where complete nitrification but no high degree of denitrification is necessary. For the pre-treatment of industrial wastewater the use of SFBBRs is advantageous, especially in cases of wastewater with high organic loading or high content of compounds with low biodegradability. Performance data from exemplary commercial plants are given. Ongoing research and development efforts aim at achieving a high simultaneous total nitrogen (TN) removal of aerated SFBBRs and at improving the efficiency of TN removal in anoxic SFBBRs.     

Estimations of municipal point source pollution in the context of river basin management.

Integrated presentation of total emissions on catchment scale is prerequisite for many tasks in integrated management of point and diffuse sources of pollution. This paper will focus on emissions of nutrients from municipal point sources. Based on calculations of discharges of N, P from households into wastewater and on the detailed evaluation of data from 76 municipal wastewater treatments plants, this paper presents ranges of specific loads of inhabitants and population equivalents in the raw wastewater. In addition data of these treatment plants have been evaluated in respect of the treatment efficiency for nitrogen and phosphorus (average reduction rates) dependent on the design characteristic (with or without nitrification, denitrification or enhanced phosphorus removal). The results of the investigation show that the specific N and P loads from households in Austria lie within the range 1.6-2.0 g P/(inhabitant.d) and 11- 13 g N/(inhabitant.d). The specific contribution of industries to municipal wastewater varies between 0.3 and 2.0 gP/(pe.d) and 0 and 13 g N/(pe.d) with average values of 1.3 g P/(pe.d) and 6.5 g N/(population equivalent (pe)/d). As average values for municipal wastewater (contributions from household and industry) this leads to specific influent loads of 1.5 g P/(pe.d) and 8.8 g N/(pe.d). Average treatment efficiencies of treatment plants are for instance 50% nitrogen removal in treatment plants with nitrification and 80% in treatment plants with nitrification/denitrification. For phosphorus a removal of about 85% can be expected where the treatment plant was designed for enhanced phosphorus removal. Finally a method for load estimations based on standard values as mentioned above was tested for the estimation of emission from municipal point sources of selected regions.     

城市污水生物除磷脱氮工艺中的矛盾关系及对策

目前 ,城市污水处理厂的处理对象包括COD、BOD5、SS和氮、磷等营养物质。就氮磷脱除而言 ,一般需涉及硝化、反硝化、微生物释磷和吸磷等过程。由于各过程的要求不同 ,在同一污水处理工艺系统中就不可避免地产生了各过程间的矛盾关系。针对泥龄问题、碳源问题、硝酸盐问题、系统的硝化和反硝化容量问题、释磷吸磷的容量问题进行了探讨     

改进型移动床生物膜反应器处理有机废水的试验

改进型移动床生物膜反应器(CMCBR)是在普通移动床生物膜反应器中引入导流板,使填料在全池循环移动,消除了普通移动床生物膜反应器的死角。在CMCBR处理模拟生活污水的试验中,研究了有机物的去除效果,考察了容积负荷、水力停留时间、冲击负荷等参数对处理效果的影响。试验发现,在填料填充比例为50%(体积比),进水COD质量浓度为320~550mg/L,水力停留时间为3 h的条件下,出水COD质量浓度小于100 mg/L,达到国家污水综合排放标准的一级标准。反应器具有较强的抗冲击负荷能力,出水水质稳定。     

Anammox brings WWTP closer to energy autarky due to increased biogas production and reduced aeration energy for N-removal.

Fifty years ago when only BOD was removed at municipal WWTPs primary clarifiers were designed with 2-3 hours hydraulic retention time (HRT). This changed with the introduction of nitrogen removal in activated sludge treatment that needed more BOD for denitrification. The HRT of primary clarification was reduced to less than one hour for dry weather flow with the consequence that secondary sludge had to be separately thickened and biogas production was reduced. Only recently the ammonia rich digester liquid (15-20% of the inlet ammonia load) could be treated with the very economic autotrophic nitritation/anammox process requiring half of the aeration energy and no organic carbon source compared to nitrification and heterotrophic denitrification. With the introduction of this new innovative digester liquid treatment the situation reverts, allowing us to increase HRT of the primary clarifier to improve biogas production and reduce aeration energy for BOD removal and nitrification at similar overall N-removal.     

Biological nitrogen removal using bio-sorbed internal organic carbon from piggery wastewater in a post-denitrification MLE process.

Nitrogen removal from a piggery wastewater was investigated in a post-denitrification modified Lüdzack Ettinger (PDMLE) process. Overall hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the PDMLE, consisting of contact/separator (C/S), nitrification, denitrification and re-aerobic bioreactor was 10 days. 60% of the influent SCOD was separated in the C/S by contacting the return sludge with the synthetic wastewater, however, only 10% of the influent SCOD was separated from the piggery wastewater. Biosorption capacities of the synthetic wastewater and piggery wastewater were 800 and 150 mg/g-MLSS, respectively. In spite of the high organic and nitrogen load, nitrification efficiency was above 95%, and nitrification rate was about 180 mg-NH4+-N/L x day. The removed delta COD/delta nitrate ratios in the denitrification tank were 4.0 and 11.5 g-SCOD/g-nitrate, while denitrification rates were 8.4 and 2.6 mg-nitrate/day for synthetic and piggery wastewater, respectively. In the proposed PDMLE process, both bio-sorbed and bypassed organic matter could be successfully used for nitrate reduction as carbon sources and the final TN removal efficiency was as high as 95%.     

Application of a combined process of moving-bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) and chemical coagulation for dyeing wastewater treatment.

A combined process consisted of a Moving-Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR) and chemical coagulation was investigated for textile wastewater treatment. The pilot scale MBBR system is composed of three MBBRs (anaerobic, aerobic-1 and aerobic-2 in series), each reactor was filled with 20% (v/v) of polyurethane-activated carbon (PU-AC) carrier for biological treatment followed by chemical coagulation with FeCl2. ln the MBBR process, 85% of COD and 70% of color (influent COD = 807.5 mg/L and color = 3,400 PtCo unit) were removed using relatively low MLSS concentration and short hydraulic retention time (HRT = 44 hr). The biologically treated dyeing wastewater was subjected to chemical coagulation. After coagulation with FeCl2, 95% of COD and 97% of color were removed overall. The combined process of MBBR and chemical coagulation has promising potential for dyeing wastewater treatment.     

Use of immobilised bacteria for the wastewater treatment--examples from the sugar industry.

This work focuses on the implementation of high performance systems to the wastewater treatment of sugar factories. For this purpose, systems with immobilised bacteria were studied. For the hydrolysis of organic matter and denitrification, fluidized bed reactors were used. The nitrification was studied with an airlift reactor system. Both hydrolysis and nitrogen elimination were investigated on laboratory and pilot scales in sugar factories. Although with porous materials higher biomass concentrations are attainable for the hydrolysis (up to 55 kg/m3), for economical reasons sand was used (22.5 kg/m3) for the pilot scale-study. With a pilot-scale reactor (volume 1 m3) the maximum sucrose conversion rate achieved with sand in the first campaign was 52 kg/(m3 d). For the nitrogen elimination on the pilot scale, a system with denitrification and nitrification was combined. The highest performance for the nitrification (reactor volume: 0.68 m3) with pumice as support material was 1.2 kg NH4-N/(m3 d), limiting the whole system. The denitrification rate (reactor volume: 0.12 m3) was four times higher (3.5-5 kg NO3-N/(m3 d). Rules of the modelling of the system are discussed.     

Biosensor-based control of nitrification inhibitor in municipal wastewater treatment plants.

The effect of potassium cyanide (KCN) on nitrification processes in municipal wastewater treatment plants was studied by batch nitrification tests, which indicated that nitrification processes tend to be inhibited at a lower KCN concentration than the present discharge standard to sewerage. The experiment of the biosensor using nitrifying bacteria was also conducted for continuous monitoring of nitrification inhibitor in influent wastewater, and demonstrated that the biosensor can detect KCN at as low as EC10 of the abovementioned batch nitrification test. Moreover, to determine the effectiveness of application of the biosensor to avoid the impact of KCN due to an accidental spillage in a sewerage system, KCN was intentionally injected into the experimental models of activated sludge process equipped both with and without the biosensor. The model with the biosensor that could detect KCN could divert the wastewater including KCN to a refuge tank, which resulted in the avoidance of upset of the activated sludge process. On the other hand, the model without the biosensor was upset in the nitrification process due to KCN. Such differences demonstrate the effectiveness of the biosensor applied to countermeasures of an accidental spillage of toxic chemicals to avoid upset of nitrification in municipal wastewater treatment plants.     

Wastewater treatment with activated pre-clarifier and planted soil filters.

With a series of buffer tank, activated pre-clarifier (SBR) and planted soil filters, it is possible to get a stable degradation and good effluent values in the case of unsteady inflow and changing concentrations. In the process presented here the activated pre-clarifier is working as a denitrification tank and the soil filter as a nitrification reactor. An automatic control manages the storm-water runoff, the water-recirculation returns the nitrate and provides a minimal feed. Experiences with this plant from 1999 to 2005 are given in this paper, research has been done in the project "Planted soil filters as a Biotechnological Process", founded by the German Federal Environment Foundation (DBU). A full scale pilot plant was built to treat wastewater from composting sides, with a 42 m3 SBR and a bed area of 2 x 550 m2 of the planted soil filters. Now, after six years of operation, the results are still satisfactory. Besides this pilot plant, landfill leakage and municipal wastewater have been treated in a technical scale plant with the same process in an 80 L SBR and 0.75 m2 vertical flow soil filter with good results.     

Evaluation of hybrid processes for nitrification by comparing MBBR/AS and IFAS configurations.

An integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) pilot plant and a moving bed biofilm reactor coupled with an activated sludge process (MBBR/AS) were operated under different temperatures, carbon loadings and solids retention times (SRTs). These two types of hybrid systems were compared, focusing on the nitrification capacity and the nitrifiers population of the media and suspended biomass alongside other process performances such as carbonaceous and total nitrogen (TN) removal rates. At high temperatures and loadings rates, both processes were fully nitrifying and achieved similarly high carbonaceous removal rates. However, under these conditions, the IFAS configuration performed better in terms of TN removal. Lower temperatures and carbon loadings led to lower carbonaceous removal rates for the MBBR/AS configuration, whereas the IFAS configuration was not affected. However, the nitrification capacity of the IFAS process decreased significantly under these conditions and the MBBR/AS process was more robust in terms of nitrification. Ammonia oxidising bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidising bacteria (NOB) population counts accurately reflected the changes in nitrification capacity. However, significantly less NOBs than AOBs were observed, without noticeable nitrite accumulation, suggesting that the characterisation method used was not as sensitive for NOBs and/or that the NOBs had a higher activity than the AOBs.     

Optimising design, operation and energy consumption of biological aerated filters (BAF) for nitrogen removal of municipal wastewater.

The Biofiltration process in wastewater treatment combines filtration and biological processes in one reactor. In Europe it is meanwhile an accepted technology in advanced wastewater treatment, whenever space is scarce and a virtually suspended solids-free effluent is demanded. Although more than 500 plants are in operation world-wide there is still a lack of published operational experiences to help planners and operators to identify potentials for optimisation, e.g. energy consumption or the vulnerability against peakloads. Examples from pilot trials are given how the nitrification and denitrification can be optimised. Nitrification can be quickly increased by adjusting DO content of the water. Furthermore carrier materials like zeolites can store surplus ammonia during peak loads and release afterwards. Pre-denitrification in biofilters is normally limited by the amount of easily degradable organic substrate, resulting in relatively high requirements for external carbon. The combination of pre-DN, N and post-DN filters is much more advisable for most municipal wastewaters, because the recycle rate can be reduced and external carbon can be saved. Exemplarily it is shown for a full scale preanoxic-DN/N/postanoxic-DN plant of 130,000 p.e. how 15% energy could be saved by optimising internal recycling and some control strategies.     

Nitrogen removal from sludge digester liquids by nitrification/denitrification or partial nitritation/anammox: environmental and economical considerations.

In wastewater treatment plants with anaerobic sludge digestion, 15-20% of the nitrogen load is recirculated to the main stream with the return liquors from dewatering. Separate treatment of this ammonium-rich digester supernatant significantly reduces the nitrogen load of the activated sludge system. Two biological applications are considered for nitrogen elimination: (i) classical autotrophic nitrification/heterotrophic denitrification and (ii) partial nitritation/autotrophic anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox). With both applications 85-90% nitrogen removal can be achieved, but there are considerable differences in terms of sustainability and costs. The final gaseous products for heterotrophic denitrification are generally not measured and are assumed to be nitrogen gas (N2). However, significant nitrous oxide (N2O) production can occur at elevated nitrite concentrations in the reactor. Denitrification via nitrite instead of nitrate has been promoted in recent years in order to reduce the oxygen and the organic carbon requirements. Obviously this "achievement" turns out to be rather disadvantageous from an overall environmental point of view. On the other hand no unfavorable intermediates are emitted during anaerobic ammonium oxidation. A cost estimate for both applications demonstrates that partial nitritation/anammox is also more economical than classical nitrification/denitrification. Therefore autotrophic nitrogen elimination should be used in future to treat ammonium-rich sludge liquors.     

High-rate nitrification using aerobic granular sludge.

The performance of nitrifying granules, which had been produced in an aerobic upflow fluidised bed (AUFB) reactor, was investigated in various types of ammonia-containing wastewaters. When pure oxygen was supplied to the AUFB reactor with a synthetic wastewater containing a high concentration of ammonia (500 g-N/m3), the ammonia removal rate reached 16.7 kg-N/m3/day with a sustained ammonia removal efficiency of more than 80%. The nitrifying granules possessing a high settling ability could be retained with a high density (approximately 10,000 g-MLSS/m3) in a continuous stirring tank reactor (CSTR) even under a short hydraulic retention time (44 min), which enabled a high-rate and stable nitrification for an inorganic wastewater containing low concentrations of ammonia (50 g-N/m3). Moreover, the nitrifying granules exhibited sufficient performance in the nitrification of real industrial wastewater containing high concentrations of ammonia (1000-1400 g-N/m3) and salinity (1.2-2.2%), which was discharged from metal-refinery processes. When the nitrifying granules were used in cooperation with activated sludge to treat domestic wastewater containing organic pollutants as well as ammonia, they fully contributed to nitrification even though a part of activated sludge adhered onto the granule surfaces to form biofilms. These results show the wide applicability of nitrifying granules to various cases in the nitrification step of wastewater treatment plants.     

Comparison between a moving bed bioreactor and a fixed bed bioreactor for biological phosphate removal and denitrification

Moving bed bioreactors (MBBR) and fixed bed bioreactors (FBBR) were compared for biological phosphorus removal and denitrification. The sorption denitrification P-elimination (S-DN-P) process was selected for this study. Results indicated that all nutrients were removed by the FBBR process compared with the MBBR process: 19.8% (total COD), 35.5% (filtered COD), 27.6% (BOD(5)), 62.2% (acetate), 78.5% (PO(4)-P), and 54.2% (NO(3)-N) in MBBR; 49.7% (total COD), 54.0% (filtered COD), 63.2% (BOD(5)), 99.6% (acetate), 98.6% (PO(4)-P), and 75.9% (NO(3)-N) in FBBR. The phosphate uptake and NO(3)-N decomposition in the FBBR process during the denitrification phase were much higher than for the MBBR process despite being of shorter duration. Results obtained from this study are helpful in elucidating the practical implications of using MBBR and FBBR for the removal of bio-P and denitrification from wastewater.     

Optimizing and modelling nitrogen removal in a new configuration of the moving-bed biofilm reactor process.

A new configuration of the moving-bed biofilm reactor process with pre-denitrification and nitrification was investigated in a pilot plant, which is fed with urban raw wastewater, the primary settler is located between the anoxic and the aerobic reactors, and primary sludge is recycled to the anoxic reactor as a hybrid pre-denitrification. The carriers used in the experiments are made of high-density polyethylene, with a diameter of 10 mm and a specific surface area of 400 m(2)/m(3). The new process was compared with conventional pre-denitrification-nitrification using in-series reactors fed with settled wastewater. The new configuration achieved an increase of 45% for the denitrification rate and of 30% for the nitrification rate when compared with conventional configuration. These results were analysed in light of the calibration study of the mixed-culture biofilm (MCB) model and simulations in AQUASIM 2.1 platform. Regarding denitrification, the high values obtained in the new configuration were attributed to a higher removal of the slowly biodegradable substrate (Xs) in the anoxic reactor due to the use of raw wastewater and sludge recycle. Accordingly, the amounts of heterotrophic biomass (XH) and Xs obtained in simulations were higher in both the biofilm and the bulk liquid. Regarding nitrification, the higher values were attributed to a lower removal of Xs in the aerobic reactors and accordingly, a lower accumulation of heterotrophic biomass in the biofilm was found in the simulations.     

Enhanced nitrogen removal using C/N load adjustment and real-time control strategy in sequencing batch reactors for swine wastewater treatment.

The laboratory-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) was used to study the effectiveness of an integrated strategy of real time control with C/N ratio adjustment for practical swine wastewater treatment. Swine waste was used as the external carbon source for continuous treatment in the SBR reactors. Oxidation-reduction potential and pH were used as parameters to control the continuous denitrification and nitrification process, respectively. A constant effluent quality could be obtained, despite drastic variations in the characteristics of influent wastewater. Also, a relatively complete removal of nutrients was always ensured, since the optimum quantity of the external carbon source could be provided for complete denitrification, and a flexible hydraulic retention time was achieved by the successful real-time control strategy. The average removal efficiencies of total organic carbon and nitrogen were over 94% and 95%, respectively.     

High strength nitrogen removal from nightsoil and piggery wastes.

Nightsoil and piggery wastes generally present high strength organics and nitrogen. This study evaluated the nitrogen removal characteristics with the existing and modified nightsoil and piggery waste treatment plants. The existing conventional plants showed 20 to 40% nitrogen removal, but the modification with SBR or MLE process could remove effectively both nitrogen and organics with the minimum COD/TN and alkalinity/TN ratios of 6 and 3.6, respectively. Nitrite nitrification and denitrification rates obtainable at higher nitrogen loads were faster than the rates of nitrate nitrification and denitrification resulting in less reactor volume requirement. However, the higher nitrogen loads increased the organic loads resulting in the reactor temperature inhibiting nitrification. Thus, a combined treatment with anaerobic digestion with the adjustment of influent bypass rates was proposed to reduce the reactor temperature and the external carbon requirement. The biological treatment could discharge about 1,100 mg/L soluble COD and 50 mg/L soluble nitrogen, respectively.     

Biostyr~曝气生物滤池中试研究

为了确认Biostyr曝气生物滤池工艺在中国的适应性,在高碑店污水处理厂进行了中试。记录和总结了2002年1月至2003年10月间的试验结果。取高碑店污水处理厂3系列初沉池出水为试验用水,试验期间水温在9-29℃。试验经历经典硝化/反硝化和同时硝化/反硝化的运行模式。以GB18918-2002为准,Biostyr滤池出水中化学耗氧量、总悬浮固体、氨基态氮、总氮等污染物均可达到其一级B标准。