Nitrate Removal in a Packed Bed Reactor Using Volatile Fatty Acids from Anaerobic Acidogenesis of Food Wastes

  • Lim, Seong-Jin (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST) ;
  • Ahn, Yeong-Hee (Department of Environmental Engineering, Dong-A University) ;
  • Kim, Eun-Young (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST) ;
  • Chang, Ho-Nam (Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, KAIST)
  • Published : 2006.12.31

Abstract

A packed bed reactor (PBR) was fed with nitrate containing synthetic wastewater or effluent from a sequencing batch reactor used for nitrification. The C source introduced into the PBR consisted of volatile fatty acids (VFAs) produced from anaerobic acidogenesis of food wastes. When nitrate loading rates ranged from $0.50\;to\;1.01\;kg\;N/m^{3}{\cdot}d$, the PBR exhibited $100{\sim}98.8%\;NO_{3}^{-}-N$ removal efficiencies and nitrite concentrations in the effluent ranged from $0\;to\;0.6\;NO_{2}^{-}-N\;mg/L$. When the PBR was further investigated to determine nitrate removal activity along the bed height using a nitrate loading rate less than $1.01\;kg\;N/m^{3}{\cdot}d$, 100% nitrate removal efficiency was observed. Approximately 83.2% nitrate removal efficiency was observed in the lower 50% of the packed-bed height. When reactor performance at a C/N ratio of 4 and a C/N ratio of 5 was compared, the PBR showed better removal efficiency (96.5%) of nitrate and less nitrite concentration in the effluent at the C/N ratio of 5. VFAs were found to be a good alternative to methanol as a carbon source for denitrification of a municipal wastewater containing 40 mg-N/L.

Keywords

References

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