Conventional activated sludge (AS) systems are widely used to treat domestic sewage worldwide. However, the removal of nitrogen in the AS system is limited, and its concentration in the effluent exceeds the recommended values in the discharge standards. In this study, a pilot experiment was conducted to improve nitrogen removal during municipal sewage treatment by operating AS and anaerobic-aerobic (AO) systems under low dissolved oxygen (DO) conditions of less than 0.5 mg L-1 and by adding denitrifying granular sludge. The low DO operation of the AS and AO systems led to the sludge washout and increased the organic content and ammonia and nitrate concentration of the effluent. In contrast, the nitrate concentrations of the effluents produced by the AS and AO systems were 9.4 ± 3.6 and 8.4 ± 0.7 mg-N L-1, respectively, indicated that denitrifying granular sludge addition enhanced denitrification during sewage treatment. The total nitrogen (TN) removal efficiency increased by 13% and 9% for the AS and AO systems despite a decrease in the temperature of 6 °C for the water in the aeration tank. Thus, adding denitrifying granular sludge to the aeration tank is a simple and effective approach to improve organic and nitrogen removal during wastewater treatment.
Keywords: Denitrification; moving bed biofilm reactor; nitrification; nutrient removal.