Enhanced nutrients removal from municipal wastewater through biological phosphorus removal followed by partial nitritation/anammox

Conventional biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus is usually limited due to the lack of biodegradable carbon source, therefore, new methods are needed. In this study, a new alternative consisting of enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) followed by partial nitritation-anammox (PN/A), is proposed to enhance nutrients removal from municipal wastewater. Research was carried out in a laboratory-scale system of combined two sequencing batch reactors (SBRs). In SBR1, phosphorus removal was achieved under an alternating anaerobic-aerobic condition and ammonium concentration stayed the same since nitrifiers were washed out from the reactor under short sludge retention time of 2-3 d. The remaining ammonium was further treated in SBR2 where PN/A was established by inoculation. A maximum of nitrogen removal rate of 0.12 kg N.m(-3).d (-1) was finally achieved. During the stable period, effluent concentrations of total phosphorus and total nitrogen were 0.25 and 10.8 mg.L-1, respectively. This study suggests EBPR-PN/A process is feasible to enhance nutrients removal from municipal wastewater of low influent carbon source. (C) Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2017