Comparison of Biological Phosphorus Removal Characteristics between A/O and A2/O Process

Bench scale experiments were carried out with two biological nutrient removal(BNR) units, A/O and $A^2O$ processes, to investigate the behavior of phosphorus in the system and to compare the characteristics of phosphorus removal in two BNR processes. To achieve this goal, COD/T-P and COD/TKN ratios of the influent was varied in the range of 23~64 and 5~24, respectively. In A/O process, influent COD/T-P ratio should be kept higher than 44mg/L to meet the final effluent T-P concentration lower than 1mg/L and in $A^2/O$ process, influent COD/T-P and COD/TKN ratios higher than 56 and 10, respectively, were required for good phosphorus release and uptake with no influence of nitrate nitrogen in return sludge. At this conditions, the rate of phosphorus release in the anaerobic basin should be kept higher than 0.1 kg S-P/kg MLVSS d In A/O process, the phosphorus content of anaerobic and aerobic sludges was increased as SRT of total system was becoming longer resulting in decreasing the difference of phosphorus content between two sludges while phosphorus release in anaerobic basin and phosphorus uptake in aerobic basin was not incident. In $A^2/O$ process, the phosphorus content of anaerobic and aerobic sludges were not increased with higher SRT of total system due to the relatively high nitrate concentration in return sludge. However, the difference of phosphorus content between anaerobic and aerobic sludges was incident when phosphorus release and uptake was observed.

A/O 및 A2/O공정의 생물학적 인제거 특성비교