Storage and growth of denitrifiers in aerobic granules: Part II. model calibration and verification

Abstract

A mathematical model to describe the simultaneous storage and growth activities of denitrifiers in aerobic granules under anoxic conditions has been developed in an accompanying article. The sensitivity of the nitrate uptake rate (NUR) toward the stoichiometric and kinetic coefficients is analyzed in this article. The model parameter values are estimated by minimizing the sum of squares of the deviations between the measured and model-predicted values. The model is successfully calibrated and a set of stoichiometric and kinetic parameters for the anoxic storage and growth of the denitrifiers are obtained. Thereafter, the model established is verified with three set of experimental data. The comparison between the model established with the ASM1 model and ASM3 shows that the present model is appropriate to simulate and predict the performance of a granule-based denitrification system.