Influence of carbon sources on nutrient removal in A2/O-MBRs: Availability assessment of internal carbon source

J Environ Sci (China). 2016 Oct:48:59-68. doi: 10.1016/j.jes.2015.12.031. Epub 2016 Mar 19.

Abstract

Both internal carbon source and some external carbon sources were used to improve the nutrient removal in Anaerobic-Anoxic-Oxic-Membrane Bioreactor (A2/O-MBRs), and their technical and cost analysis was investigated. The experimental results showed that the nutrient removals were improved by all the carbon source additions. The total nitrogen and phosphorus removal efficiency were higher in the experiments with external carbon source additions than that with internal carbon source addition. It was found that pathways of nitrogen and phosphorus transform were different dependent on different carbon source additions by the mass balance analysis. With external carbon source addition, the simultaneous nitrification and denitrification occurred in aerobic zone, and the P-uptake in aerobic phase was evident. Therefore, with addition of C-MHP (internal carbon source produced from sludge pretreatment by microwave-H2O2 process), the denitrification and phosphorus-uptake in anoxic zone was notable. Cost analysis showed that the unit nitrogen removal costs were 57.13CNY/kg N of C-acetate addition and 54.48CNY/kgN of C-MHP addition, respectively. The results indicated that the C-MHP has a good technical and economic feasibility to substitute external carbon sources partially for nutrient removal.

Keywords: Carbon source; Cost analysis; Mass balance; Nutrient removal.

MeSH terms

  • Bioreactors / microbiology
  • Carbon / metabolism*
  • Denitrification
  • Nitrogen / analysis
  • Nitrogen / metabolism*
  • Phosphorus / analysis
  • Phosphorus / metabolism*
  • Waste Disposal, Fluid / economics
  • Waste Disposal, Fluid / methods*
  • Wastewater / chemistry
  • Wastewater / microbiology
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical / metabolism*

Substances

  • Waste Water
  • Water Pollutants, Chemical
  • Phosphorus
  • Carbon
  • Nitrogen