Biological Nutrient Removal by Suspended Growth Systems

Author(s):  
Ezerie Henry Ezechi ◽  
Augustine Chioma Affam ◽  
Khalida Muda

Nutrients contribute to the wellbeing of water bodies. However, excessive enrichment of water bodies by nutrients could harm aquatic organisms. Some of the severe environmental problems caused by nutrients on water bodies include eutrophication and algal bloom. In children, consumption of nitrate-polluted water causes methaemoglobinemia. Consumption of food irrigated with nutrient-polluted wastewater has been associated with several health implications. These nutrients primarily originate from point and non-point sources. Several biological-suspended treatment systems have been developed to reduce nutrients to acceptable limits prior to discharge into water bodies. These treatment systems are associated with several merits and demerits. This chapter explores the implications of water body enrichment by nutrients and their impact on health, economy, and environment. Furthermore, some suspended growth treatment systems applied for the treatment of nutrient polluted wastewater were explored.

2019 ◽  
Vol 97 ◽  
pp. 05029
Author(s):  
Valery Borovkov ◽  
Ivan Karaichev

An important aspect of water body amelioration is the control of the oxygen regime in water mass. Pollution of water bodies deteriorates their oxygen regime, and the natural inflow of oxygen through the free surface is not enough to compensate for oxygen consumption for pollutant oxidation. Water pollution by various substances causes damage resulting from a decrease in the ecological safety of urban water bodies. Data of World Health Organization (WHO) show that the contact of the population with polluted water bodies causes spreading of deceases, such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid, and poliomyelitis, and creates considerable health risks. In this context, the artificial aeration of water mass with the use of aeration systems, which improve water quality, is gaining in importance. Most widespread among such aeration systems are diffused-air aerators, in which air supplied by a compressor passes through perforated diffuser plates. The size of the perforation is often chosen with no appropriate hydraulic substantiation. The size of the resulting air bubbles, no doubt, depends on the size of perforation holes; however, the available design relationships give contradictory results depending on the immersion depth of the diffuser plate and the working pressure, which determines air discharge velocity from diffuser plate perforations. This shows that the studies along this line are of scientific and practical importance. This article presents the analysis of the existing relationships for determining the size of air bubbles that form when air is pumped into water through nozzles of different diameters at different pumping rates; the analysis has shown the results of such calculations to differ considerably. Buckingham π-theorem was used to construct dimensionless groups, determining the relationship between the size of bubbles and the factors that govern the outflow of air into water. Dimensionless groups were used to obtain a formula for calculating the size of air bubbles at the aeration of water mass.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yelong Zhao ◽  
Qian Shen ◽  
Qian Wang ◽  
Fan Yang ◽  
Shenglei Wang ◽  
...  

As polluted water bodies are often small in area and widely distributed, performing artificial field screening is difficult; however, remote-sensing-based screening has the advantages of being rapid, large-scale, and dynamic. Polluted water bodies often show anomalous water colours, such as black, grey, and red. Therefore, the large-scale recognition of suspected polluted water bodies through high-resolution remote-sensing images and water colour can improve the screening efficiency and narrow the screening scope. However, few studies have been conducted on such kinds of water bodies. The hue angle of a water body is a parameter used to describe colour in the International Commission on Illumination (CIE) colour space. Based on the measured data, the water body with a hue angle greater than 230.958° is defined as a water colour anomaly, which is recognised based on the Sentinel-2 image through the threshold set in this study. The results showed that the hue angle of the water body was extracted from the Sentinel-2 image, and the accuracy of the hue angle calculated by the in situ remote-sensing reflectance Rrs (λ) was evaluated, where the root mean square error (RMSE) and mean relative error (MRE) were 4.397° and 1.744%, respectively, proving that this method is feasible. The hue angle was calculated for a water colour anomaly and a general water body in Qiqihar. The water body was regarded as a water colour anomaly when the hue angle was >230.958° and as a general water body when the hue angle was ≤230.958°. High-quality Sentinel-2 images of Qiqihar taken from May 2016 to August 2019 were chosen, and the position of the water body remained unchanged; there was no error or omission, and the hue angle of the water colour anomaly changed obviously, indicating that this method had good stability. Additionally, the method proposed is only suitable for optical deep water, not for optical shallow water. When this method was applied to Xiong’an New Area, the results showed good recognition accuracy, demonstrating good universality of this method. In this study, taking Qiqihar as an example, a surface survey experiment was conducted from October 14 to 15, 2018, and the measured data of six general and four anomalous water sample points were obtained, including water quality terms such as Rrs (λ), transparency, water colour, water temperature, and turbidity.


2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Choi ◽  
Z. Yun ◽  
K.S. Min

In a densely populated area, a large wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) has been constructed in the underground. The plant is practically “invisible” to visitors and neighbours, and the ground level is used as a park and sport facilities in order to avoid the “not in my backyard” phenomenon. The WWTP has a 5-stage biological nutrient removal system utilizing the denitrifying PAO (dPAO) with a step feed in order to treat the weak sewage with higher nutrient removal requirement. Although the underground installation could be expected to increase plant operating temperature, the temperature increase was only 1°C. The polished final effluent from a sand filter produced average TN and TP concentrations of 5.11 mg/L and 0.91 mg/L, respectively with SS concentrations of 0.61 mg/L, indicating that the dPAO system combined with sand filter effectively produced a high quality effluent.


1990 ◽  
Vol 22 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 53-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Rabinowitz ◽  
T. D. Vassos ◽  
R. N. Dawson ◽  
W. K. Oldham

A brief review of recent developments in biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal technology is presented. Guidelines are outlined of how current understanding of these two removal mechanisms can be applied in the upgrading of existing wastewater treatment plants for biological nutrient removal. A case history dealing with the upgrading of the conventional activated sludge process located at Penticton, British Columbia, to a biological nutrient removal facility with a design flow of 18,200 m3/day (4.0 IMGD) is presented as a design example. Process components requiring major modification were the headworks, bioreactors and sludge handling facilities.


1989 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 1821-1824
Author(s):  
M. Suzuki ◽  
K. Chihara ◽  
M. Okada ◽  
H. Kawashima ◽  
S. Hoshino

A computer program based on expert system software was developed and proposed as a prototype model for water management to control eutrophication problems in receiving water bodies (Suzuki etal., 1988). The system has several expert functions: 1. data input and estimation of pollution load generated and discharged in the river watershed; 2. estimation of pollution load run-off entering rivers; 3. estimation of water quality of receiving water bodies, such as lakes; and 4. assisting man-machine dialog operation. The program can be used with MS-DOS BASIC and assembler in a 16 bit personal computer. Five spread sheets are utilized in calculation and summation of the pollutant load, using multi-windows. Partial differential equations for an ecological model for simulation of self-purification in shallow rivers and simulation of seasonal variations of water quality in a lake were converted to computer programs and included in the expert system. The simulated results of water quality are shown on the monitor graphically. In this study, the expert system thus developed was used to estimate the present state of one typical polluted river basin. The river was the Katsura, which flows into Lake Sagami, a lake dammed for water supply. Data which had been actually measured were compared with the simulated water quality data, and good agreement was found. This type of expert system is expected to be useful for water management of a closed water body.


1998 ◽  
Vol 37 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 281-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dick H. Eikelboom ◽  
Andreas Andreadakis ◽  
Kjaer Andreasen

A joint EU research project aimed at solving activated sludge bulking in nutrient removal plants was initiated in 1993. The project started with a survey of the size and composition of the filamentous population in nutrient removal plants in Denmark, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands. The results show that biological nutrient removal process conditions indeed favour filamentous microorganisms in their competition with floc forming organisms. An increase in the size of the filamentous population resulted in a deterioration of the settling properties of the biomass, except for plants with Bio-P removal conditions. It is assumed that in the latter case the dense clusters of Bio-P bacteria increase the weight of the flocs, and compensate for the effect of the larger number of filaments. Although exceptions frequently occur, the following sequence in decreasing filamentous organism population size was observed for the process conditions indicated: - completely mixed + simultaneous denitrification; - completely mixed + intermittent aeration/denitrification; - alternating anoxic/oxic process conditions, with an anaerobic tank for biological phosphate removal (Bio-Denipho); - alternating anoxic/oxic process conditions (Bio-Denitro); - predenitrification The surveys provided little information about the effect of nutrient removal in plants with plug flow aeration basins. Simultaneous precipitation with aluminium salts nearly always resulted in a low number of filaments and a good settling sludge. The size of the filamentous organism population showed a seasonal pattern with a maximum in winter/early spring and a minimum during summer (in Greece: during autumn). This seasonal variation is primarily caused by the effect of the season on the population sizes of M. parvicella, N. limicola and Type 0092. M. parvicella is by far the most important filamentous species in nutrient removal plants. In Denmark only, Type 0041 also frequently dominates the filamentous population, but seldom causes severe bulking. Considering their frequency of occurrence, approx. 10 other filamentous micro-organisms are of minor importance. Growth of some of these species, viz. those which use soluble substrate, can be prevented by the introduction of Bio-P process conditions. M. parvicella and Type 0041 (and probably also Actinomycetes and the Types 1851 and 0092) seem to compete for the same substrates i.e. the influent particulate fraction. Most of the differences in composition of the filamentous microorganism population can be explained by whether or not premixing of influent and recycled sludge is used. In general, premixing for a short period of time followed by anoxic conditions favours Type 0041. M. parvicella seems to proliferate if the particulate fraction is first hydrolysed or if it enters the plant via an oxic zone. It is concluded that bulking in nutrient removal plants is mainly caused by filamentous species requiring the particulate fraction for their growth.


1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 327-334 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Pavan ◽  
P. Battistoni ◽  
P. Traverso ◽  
A. Musacco ◽  
F. Cecchi

The paper presents results coming from experiments on pilot scale plants about the possibility to integrate the organic waste and wastewater treatment cycles, using the light organic fraction produced via anaerobic fermentation of OFMSW as RBCOD source for BNR processes. The effluent from the anaerobic fermentation process, with an average content of 20 g/l of VFA+ lactic acid was added to wastewater to be treated in order to increase RBCOD content of about 60-70 mg/l. The results obtained in the BNR process through the addition of the effluent from the fermentation unit are presented. Significant increase of denitrification rate was obtained: 0.06 KgN-NO3/KgVSS d were denitrified in the best operative conditions studied. -Vmax shows values close to those typical of the pure methanol addition (about 0.3 KgN-NO3/KgVSS d). A considerable P release (35%) was observed in the anaerobic step of the BNR process, even if not yet a completely developed P removal process.


1997 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vibeke R. Borregaard

In the upgrade of wastewater treatment plants to include biological nutrient removal the space available is often a limiting facor. It may be difficult to use conventional suspended growth processes (i.e. activated sludge) owing to the relatively large surface area required for these processes. Recent years have therefore seen a revived interest in treatment technologies using various types of attached growth processes. The “new” attached growth processes, like the Biostyr process, utilise various kinds of manufactured media, e.g. polystyrene granules, which offer a high specific surface area, and are therefore very compact. The Biostyr plants allow a combination of nitrification-denitrification and filtration in one and the same unit. The results obtained are 8 mg total N/l and an SS content normally below 10 mg/l. The plants in Denmark which have been extended with a Biostyr unit have various levels of PLC control and on-line instrumentation.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document