Co-removal of P-nitrophenol and nitrate in sulfur-based autotrophic and methanol-fed heterotrophic denitrification bioreactors

Abstract

P-nitrophenol (PNP) can co-occur with nitrate (NO3-) in industrial and municipal wastewater due to effluent discharges from industry and agricultural activities. In this study, the simultaneous removal of PNP and NO3- was investigated under autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrifying conditions in two bioreactor columns at laboratory scale. Autotrophic denitrification with elemental sulfur showed efficient elimination of both PNP (85 % on average for 5–50 mg/L) and NO3- (99 % on average) even at feed PNP concentration of 50 mg/L. In contrast, the heterotrophic column showed significantly lower PNP removal (53 % on average for 5–50 mg/L) despite denitrification efficiency being ≥ 95 %. ORP was identified as a possible control parameter to modulate PNP removal efficiency. The autotrophic column showed better resiliency than the heterotrophic one under intermittent feeding of 50 mg/L of PNP. Absorbance spectra and HPLC results revealed no accumulation of PNP by-products, i.e., aminophenol, in the autotrophic column during transient feeding conditions.