Abstract
An improvement of nitrogen and phosphorus removal in SBR using the elutriated acids from the food waste as an external carbon source was investigated in this study. The food waste was elutriated at $35^{\circ}C$ and pH 9 to produce the external carbon source. The elutriate of food waste were continuously collected. The elutriated liquid contained VFAs of 39,180 mg/L representing soluble COD of 44,700 mg/L. The SBR showed poor denitrification and EBPR (enhanced biological phosphorus removal) without elutriated VFAs addition. An average denitrification rate was 0.4 mg NOx-N/g MLVSS/day. In turn, EBPR was also inhibited by this poor denitrification because the remaining nitrate in anaerobic phase resulting a poor denitrification. On the other hand, the denitrification in anoxic phase significantly improved with an elutriated VFAs addition. Nitrate removal was 82% while the denitrification rate was 2.9 mg NOx-N/g MLVSS/day with 18.4 mL/cycle of elutriated VFAs. With the enhanced denitrification, nitrate concentration in anaerobic phase could effectively be controlled to a very low level. The elimination of nitrate inhibition in anaerobic phase resulted enhancement of EBPR. The specific phosphate release rate was $1.9mg\;PO_4^{3-}-P/g\; MLVSS/day$ with less than 0.5 mg/L of $PO_4^{3-}-P$ concentration.