Abstract
This research focused on the ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) removal from the domestic wastewater using the attached growth reactors. Two types of waste material of corncob (biodegradable material) and concrete (nonbiodegradable material) were used as the carrier for microorganisms' attachment. During operation, both reactors achieved absolutely high performance of ammonium removal (up to 99%) and total nitrogen removal (up to 95%). The significant advantage of corncob carrier was that the corncob was able to be a source of carbon for biological denitrification, leading to no external carbon requirement for operating the system. However, the corncob caused an increasing turbidity of the effluent. On the other hand, the concrete carrier required the minimal external carbon of 3.5 C/N ratio to reach the good performance. Moreover, a longer period for microorganisms' adaptation was found in the concrete carrier rather than the corncob carrier. Further, the same physiological and biochemical characteristics of active bacteria were found at the two carriers, which were negative gram, cocci shape, and smooth and white-turbid colony. Due to the effluent quality, the concrete was more appropriate carrier than the corncob for wastewater treatment.
Highlights
Domestic wastewater contains high concentration of nitrogen which is from products through household consumption and human metabolism
Various biological technologies have been proposed for efficient nitrogen removal from wastewater including simultaneous nitrification and denitrification: SND [4], anammox-based reactor [5], membrane bioreactor [6], and combination of activated carbon and short-cut nitrification
Since the organic carbon contained in the domestic wastewater was low and insufficient for complete denitrification, the BioMed Research International external carbon including acetate and ethanol is necessary for the SND system
Summary
Domestic wastewater contains high concentration of nitrogen which is from products through household consumption and human metabolism. Various biological technologies have been proposed for efficient nitrogen removal from wastewater including simultaneous nitrification and denitrification: SND [4], anammox-based reactor [5], membrane bioreactor [6], and combination of activated carbon and short-cut nitrification [7]. Since the organic carbon contained in the domestic wastewater was low and insufficient for complete denitrification, the BioMed Research International external carbon including acetate and ethanol is necessary for the SND system. The development of polymer carrier with high porosity was recommended to increase the amount of attached biomass and the reactor performance. The commercial plastic material was carrier in the simultaneous partial nitrification, anammox, and denitrification reactor [11]. Two waste materials of corncob and concrete were used as carrier in the attached growth reactor. The preliminary study on the attached biomass was discussed
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