Abstract
The feasibility of enhancing biological nutrient removal from an industrial wastewater was tested with food waste leachate and sugar liquid waste as external carbon sources. Long term influences of adding external carbon sources were investigated to see how the biological nutrient removal process worked in terms of the removal efficiency. The addition of the external carbons led to a significant improvement in the removal efficiency of nutrients: from 49% to approximately 76% for nitrogen and from 64% to around 80% for phosphorus. Approximately, 20% of the removal nitrogen was synthesized into biomass, while the remaining 80% was denitrified. Though the addition of external carbon sources improved nutrient removal, it also increased the waste sludge production substantially. The optimal observed BOD/TN ratio, based on nitrogen removal and sludge production, was around 4.0 in this study.