Effect of phosphorus concentration on phosphorus removal and biomass

Water Sci Technol. 2011;64(4):887-91. doi: 10.2166/wst.2011.656.

Abstract

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) process was employed to study the effect of biological phosphorus removal (bio-P removal) and P-content in treated sludge with increased phosphorus concentration present in the wastewater. Further, the following four test fractions of raw wastewaters was obtained having different P-concentrations viz., run 1: P-20 mg/L, run 2: P-40 mg/L, run 3: P-60 mg/L, run 4: P-80 mg/L. The effective P-removal obtained for these four test fractions were found to be 23.07 mg/L (98.17%), 41.35 mg/L (88.16%), 45.75 mg/L (72.04%) and 55.80 mg/L (66.82%) respectively for run 1, 2, 3 and 4 fractions. Moreover, the similar increase in phosphorous concentration i.e., from 20 to 80 mg/L caused an apparent increase in total solid (TS) values from 7 to 8.3 g TS/L, whereas the total volatile solid (TVS) content remained constant (i.e. 4.5 g TVS/L). These results inferred that the proportion of TVS in the TS decreased from 70 to 55%. Moreover, by increasing the initial P-concentration from 20 to 80 mg/L, the corresponding P-proportion of excess sludge was increased from 2 to 6.2%.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biomass*
  • Bioreactors
  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Phosphorus / analysis*
  • Phosphorus / isolation & purification*
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / isolation & purification*

Substances

  • Membranes, Artificial
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical
  • Phosphorus