Operational strategy for nitrogen removal from centrate in a two-stage partial nitrification–Anammox process

Abstract

This paper presents the operational strategy for nitrogen removal in a two-stage, partial nitrification (PN) process coupled with anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) process. The process was used to remove ammonium from centrate obtained from a full-scale, wastewater treatment plant in British Columbia, Canada. The PN, which was carried out in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR), successfully converted ∼ 49.5±1.0% of ammonium to nitrite. The operation of SBR under higher dissolved oxygen in combination with slow feeding resulted in significant reduced HRT without nitrate accumulation. Partially nitrified centrate was further treated in Anammox reactors, where the mixture of ammonium and nitrite was converted mainly to nitrogen gas. Anammox treatment was carried out in two different types of Anammox reactors: a moving bed hybrid reactor and an up-flow fixed-bed biofilm reactor. The hybrid Anammox reactor removed an average of 55.8% of NH4-N, versus the 48.3% NH4-N removed in the up-flow fixed-bed reactor. Nitrite removal in the hybrid and up-flow fixed-bed Anammox reactors averaged 80.8% and 62.5%, respectively. This study also illustrated that in both Anammox reactors, better ammonium removal was achieved when the nitrite to ammonium ratio is between 1.35 and 1.45. As such, alkalinity was found to neither control nor limit the Anammox reaction.