Performance of partial nitritation-anammox processes at mainstream conditions in an IFAS system

Alba Pedrouso; Jozef Trela; Angeles Val Del Rio; Anuska Mosquera-Corral; Elzbieta Plaza

doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109538

Performance of partial nitritation-anammox processes at mainstream conditions in an IFAS system

J Environ Manage. 2019 Nov 15:250:109538. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109538. Epub 2019 Sep 23.

Authors

Alba Pedrouso¹, Jozef Trela², Angeles Val Del Rio³, Anuska Mosquera-Corral⁴, Elzbieta Plaza⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Rúa de Lope Gómez de Marzoa s/n, E-15782, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Electronic address: alba.pedrouso@usc.es.
² Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Teknikringen 10B, SE-10044, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: trela@kth.se.
³ Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Rúa de Lope Gómez de Marzoa s/n, E-15782, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Electronic address: mangeles.val@usc.es.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Rúa de Lope Gómez de Marzoa s/n, E-15782, Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain. Electronic address: anuska.mosquera@usc.es.
⁵ Department of Sustainable Development, Environmental Science and Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Teknikringen 10B, SE-10044, Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: elap@kth.se.

PMID: 31703243
DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109538

Abstract

The partial nitritation-anammox processes implementation in the main line of wastewater treatment plants would lead them closer to the energy autarky. With this purpose, an integrated fixed film activated sludge (IFAS) reactor was operated at pilot scale. Efficient nitrogen removal (72 ± 11%) was achieved for anaerobically pre-treated municipal wastewater at low temperature (21 - 15 °C), with a nitrogen removal rate of 37 ± 3 g N/(m³·d) at 15 °C. The ammonium oxidizing bacteria were more abundant in the activated sludge, while anammox bacteria were primarily located in biofilm attached onto the carriers surface. Nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) activity was similar between both fractions and its specific activity decreased more than that of other populations when the operating temperature was reduced. Furthermore, the IFAS operational strategy (aerobic/anoxic periods) allowed an efficient NOB activity suppression inside the reactor, which accounted only for the 10 - 20% of the maximum potential activity.

Keywords: Anammox; Autotrophic nitrogen removal; Integrated fixed film activated sludge; Mainstream; Nitritation.

MeSH terms

Ammonium Compounds*
Bioreactors
Nitrites
Nitrogen
Oxidation-Reduction
Sewage*
Wastewater

Substances

Ammonium Compounds
Nitrites
Sewage
Waste Water
Nitrogen