• Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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• 2007.05a
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• pp.46-52
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• 2007

As flue gas desulfurization (FGD) wastewater contains high concentrations of nitrate and is very low in organic carbon, the feasibility of nitrate removal by autotrophic denitrification using Thiobacillus denitrificans was studied. This autotrophic bacteria oxidizes elemental sulfur to sulfate while reducing nitrate to elemental nitrogen gas, thereby eliminating the need for addition of organic compounds such as methanol. Owing to the unusually high concentrations of dissolved salts $(Ca^{2+},\;Mg^{2+},\;Na^+,\;K^+,\;B^+,\;SO_4^{2-},\;Cl^-,\;F^-,)$ in the FGD wastewater, extensive laboratory-scale and pilot-scale tests were carried out in sulfur-limestone reactors (1) to determine the effect of salinity on autotrophic denitrification, (2) to evaluate the use of limestone for pH control and as source of inorganic carbon for microbial growth, and, (3) to find the optimum environmental and operational conditions for autotrophic denitrification of FGD wastewater. The experimental results demonstrated that (1) autotrophic denitrification is not inhibited up to 1.8 mol total dissolved salt content; (2) inorganic carbon and inorganic phosphorus must be present in sufficiently high concentrations; (3) limestone can supply effective buffering capacity and inorganic carbon; (4) the high calcium concentration may interfere with pH control, phosphorus solubility and limestone dissolution, hence requiring pretreatment of the FGD wastewater; and, 5) under optimum conditions, complete autotrophic denitrification of FGD wastewater was obtained in a sulfur-limestone packed bed reactor with a sulfur:limestone volume ratio of 2:1 for volumetric loading rates up to 400g $NO_{3^-}N/m^3.d$. The interesting interactions between autotrophic denitrification, pH, alkalinity, and the unusually high calcium and boron content of the FGD wastewater are highlighted. The engineering significance of the results is discussed.

• Journal of Korean Society for Atmospheric Environment
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• v.17 no.E4
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• pp.157-162
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• 2001

Jet Bubbling Reactors(JBRs) were operated for the removal of SO$_{x}$ in flue gases produced from many electric power plants. However, many JBR flue gas desulfurization (FGD) facility faced a decrease of SO$_{x}$ removal efficiency and an increase of scale problems with continuous operations. We increased alkalinity of the SO$_{2}$ absorbing medium by adding the dibasic acids (DBAs) to solve these problems more effectively. The SO$_{2}$ removal efficiency, the purity of CaCO$_{3}$ and COD of the wastewater was measured to identify the addition effects of DBAs (150, 200, 250, and 400 ppm) for 2hr in a day into the JBR attached to the large-scale power plants (400 MW$\times$3). Addition of the DBAs resulted in the improvement of the SO$_{2}$ removal efficiency from 2 to 5% and the purity of the gypsum from 1 to 2%; these improvement were due to the alkalinity increase of the absorbing medium and the reduction of a proportion of un-reacted CaCO$_{3}$, respectively. Also, the scale problems formed by un-reacted CaCO$_{3}$ inside the reaction zone of the JBR were substantially reduced. Even though the effluent COD of the wastewater slightly increased from 10~15 to 18~36 mg/l and the erosion problems in the injection pump and duct occurred, this method of increasing SO$_{2}$ removal efficiency by adding the DBAs could be considered as a profitable approach.ach.