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Carbon-to-nitrogen ratio influence on the performance of bioretention for wastewater treatment

  • Resource Recovery from Wastewater, Solid Waste and Waste Gas: Engineering and Management Aspects
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Abstract

Bioretention cell (BRC), bioretention cell with microbial fuel cell (BRC-MFC), and an enhanced combined BRC-MFC system with bimetallic zero-valent iron (BRC-MFC-BZVI) were implemented in current study to treat the domestic wastewater. Nitrogen removal characteristics of three systems were investigated by adjusting influent carbon/nitrogen ratio (C/N ratio of 2.54–19.36). Results revealed that the nitrification and denitrification performances were mainly influenced by organic matter and system combination, which further affected nitrogen removal. When the influent C/N ratio was between 2 to 3, compared with BRC system, in BRC-MFC and BRC-MFC-BZVI system, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and ammonical nitrogen (NH4+-N) removal efficiencies were still reached to 83.04%, 61.06%, and 42.26% and 86.53%, 43.61%, and 50.99% respectively, which simultaneously achieved high-efficiency of organic matter and nitrogen removal. The efficient supply of electrons in the BRC-MFC and BRC-MFC-BZVI processes was the main reason to achieve profound denitrification removal under the condition of low C/N. Removal rates of nitrate (NO3−−N) and nitrite (NO2−−N) were relatively higher due to microbial-driven redox reactions caused by driving electrons to flow in the closed circuit of metal wire connection. Moreover, phylogenetic diversity of bacterial communities mainly induced the catalytic iron, which further enhanced biological nitrogen reduction. The maximum efficient removal of organic matter (OM), TN, and NH4 + −N were obtained in the BRC-MFC-BZVI system, which were 98.42% (C/N = 10.42), 55.61% (C/N = 4.16), and 61.13% (C/N = 4.16), respectively.

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Funding

This research was co-funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41967043), Key technology Program of Gansu province (No. JK2018-16), the National Key Technologies R&D Program (No. 2015BAL02B05), the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51550110231).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Lanzhou University of Technology, 287 Langongping, Lanzhou, 730050, China

    Yajun Wang & Chongchong Geng

  2. School of Civil Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Yajun Wang, Rajendra Prasad Singh & Dafang Fu

  3. Monash University Joint research Centre for Future Cities, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210096, China

    Rajendra Prasad Singh & Dafang Fu

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  1. Yajun Wang
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  2. Rajendra Prasad Singh
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  4. Dafang Fu
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Correspondence to Dafang Fu.

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Wang, Y., Singh, R.P., Geng, C. et al. Carbon-to-nitrogen ratio influence on the performance of bioretention for wastewater treatment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27, 17652–17660 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-07438-3

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