Potential of food waste-derived volatile fatty acids as alternative carbon source for denitrifying moving bed biofilm reactors

Tugba Sapmaz; Reza Manafi; Amir Mahboubi; Dag Lorick; Derya Y Koseoglu-Imer; Mohammad J Taherzadeh

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128046

Potential of food waste-derived volatile fatty acids as alternative carbon source for denitrifying moving bed biofilm reactors

Bioresour Technol. 2022 Nov:364:128046. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128046. Epub 2022 Sep 29.

Authors

Tugba Sapmaz¹, Reza Manafi², Amir Mahboubi², Dag Lorick³, Derya Y Koseoglu-Imer⁴, Mohammad J Taherzadeh²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Environmental Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34469 Istanbul, Turkey; Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery, University of Borås, 501 90 Boras, Sweden. Electronic address: tugba.sapmaz@hb.se.
² Swedish Centre for Resource Recovery, University of Borås, 501 90 Boras, Sweden.
³ Gryaab AB, Norra Fagelrovagen, SE 41834 Gothenburg, Sweden.
⁴ Department of Environmental Engineering, Istanbul Technical University, Maslak, 34469 Istanbul, Turkey.

PMID: 36182012
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2022.128046

Abstract

Fossil-based materials such as methanol are frequently used in the denitrification process of advanced biological wastewater treatment as external carbon source. Volatile fatty acids (VFAs) produced by anaerobic digestion of food waste, are sustainable compounds with the potential to act as carbon sources for denitrification, reducing carbon footprint and material costs. In this study, the effectiveness of food waste-derived VFAs (AD-VFA) was investigated in the post-denitrification process in comparison with synthetic VFA and methanol as carbon sources. Acetic acid had the highest rate of disappearance among single tested VFAs with a denitrification rate of 0.44 g NO_x-N removed/m²/day, indicating a preferential utilization pattern. While AD-VFA had a denitrification rate of 0.61 mg NO_x-N removed/m²/day, sVFA had a rate of 0.57 mg NO_x-N removed/m²/day, indicating that impurities in AD-VFA did not play substantial role in denitrification. AD-VFA proved to be promising carbon source alternative for denitrification in wastewater treatment plants.

Keywords: Denitrification; External carbon source; Food waste; Moving bed biofilm reactor; Volatile fatty acids.