Abstract
The growth characteristics of Commercially Developed Nitrifying Bacteria (CDNB) were studied in laboratoryscale. CDNB, a pure, artificially isolated bacterium, was cultivated to produce Cultivated Nitrifying Bacterium Group (CNBG). The average ammonia removal rate of CDNB was 0.0234g $NH_4^+-N/g$ MLSS/hr. CNBG was produced in the batch reactor and Specific Nitrification Rate (SNR) was determined at 0.0107g $NH_4^+-N/g$ MLSS/hr. The SNR of CNBG was lower than the SNR of CDNB because the diverse and multi-cultured microbial growth took place during cultivation. The effect of the temperatures and the mixing ratios of sewage and culture solution on the SNR of CNBG was studied. The SNR of CNBG, 0.0107g $NH_4^+-N/g$ MLSS/hr at $27^{\circ}C$, decreased to 0.0048g $NH_4^+-N/g$ MLSS/hr at $15^{\circ}C$, and temperature coefficient (${\Theta}$) was calculated to be 1.07. With the varied sewage mixing ratios, the SNR of CNBG remained unchanged. Activated sludge reactors maintaining an MLSS of 2,000mg/L at HRT of 4 h were operated under conditions in which dosage of Concentrated CNBG Solution (CCNBGS, 10,000mg MLSS/L) and application method of CNBG were varied. The reactor with 20mL of CCNBGS took shorter time to oxidize $NH_4^+-N$ reaching 1mg/L than the reactor with 5mL of CCNBGS showing that higher dosages were associated with greater mass removal of $NH_4^+-N$. However, the total removal was not great. In terms of different methods of CNBG application, reactor seeded with 20mL of CCNBGS took 3days to reach 1mg/L of effluent ammonia concentration while reactor dosed with 20% (v/v) CNBG implanted media took 2days. Both the control reactor and the reactor dosed with 20% (v/v) media only did not reach 1mg $NH_4^+-N/L$ after operating 18days. The reactor with CNBG implanted media had the highest $NH_4^+-N$ removal rate because of maintaining high concentration of Nitrifying Oxidizing Bacteria (NOM), and is regarded as an appropriate method for the activated sludge process.