Biological Nitrogen and COD Removal of Nutrient-Rich Wastewater Using Aerobic and Anaerobic Reactors

Abstract

A preliminary study on nitrogen and organic removal efficiency of a lab-scale system using aerobic and an-aerobic reactors was performed. A simulated wastewater containing elevated levels of nitrogen was used. This paper aims to compare the efficiency of aerobic and anaerobic reactors in achieving nitrogen and chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal of nutrient-rich wastewater. It also presents the start-up experi-mentation conducted on simulated wastewater using two different reactors configured as aerobic and anaero-bic. Start-up experiments were carried out using a 5-liter acrylic aerobic reactor and a 4-liter flask anaerobic reactor containing activated sludge taken from De La Salle University (DLSU) wastewater treatment plant as a source of inoculum. Simulated wastewater was continuously fed to the two reactors and the time course of biomass growth was monitored by measuring the biomass concentration represented by mixed liquor volatile solids (MLVS). The time course of organic pollutant reduction by measuring the chemical oxygen demand (COD) was conducted until steady state condition was reached. On the other hand, COD and nitrogen tests such as Ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N), Nitrite nitrogen (NO2--N), Nitrate nitrogen (NO3--N) were also per-formed using 5 batch aerobic reactors containing different concentrations of wastewater and a single batch anaerobic reactor to see the effect of different feed concentrations in the removal of nitrogen. Preliminary results showed that 98% reduction in COD was obtained in aerobic reactor, as supported by increasing con-centration of MLVS, with a hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 5 hours after 11 days while 34% reduction in COD was obtained in anaerobic reactor with the same HRT after 14 days.