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Online control of biofilm and reducing carbon dosage in denitrifying biofilter: pilot and full-scale application

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Abstract

Denitrifying biofilter (DNBF) is widely used for advanced nitrogen removal in the reclaimed wastewater treatment plants (RWWTPs). Manual control of DNBF easily led to unstable process performance and high cost. Consequently, there is a need to automatic control of two decisive operational processes, carbon dosage and backwash, in DNBF. In this study, online control of DNBF was investigated in the pilot-scale DNBF (600 m3·d–1), and then applied in the full-scale DNBF (10 × 104 m3·d–1). A novel simple online control strategy for carbon dosage with the effluent nitrate as the sole control parameter was designed and tested in the pilot-scale DNBF. Backwash operation was optimized based on the backwash control strategy using turbidity as control parameter. Using the integrated control strategy, in the pilot-scale DNBF, highly efficient nitrate removal with effluent TN lower than 3 mg·L–1 was achieved and DNBF was not clogged any more. The online control strategy for carbon dosage was successfully applied in a RWWTP. Using the online control strategy, the effluent nitrate concentration was controlled relatively stable and carbon dosage was saved for 18%.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51508561). Xiuhong Liu also acknowledges China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2015M581236) for the financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment & Natural Resources, Renmin University of China, Beijing, 100872, China

    Xiuhong Liu, Hongchen Wang & Yuankai Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of Beijing for Water Quality Science and Water Environment Recovery Engineering, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Qing Yang, Jianmin Li & Yongzhen Peng

Authors
  1. Xiuhong Liu
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  2. Hongchen Wang
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  3. Qing Yang
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  4. Jianmin Li
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  5. Yuankai Zhang
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  6. Yongzhen Peng
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Correspondence to Hongchen Wang.

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Liu, X., Wang, H., Yang, Q. et al. Online control of biofilm and reducing carbon dosage in denitrifying biofilter: pilot and full-scale application. Front. Environ. Sci. Eng. 11, 4 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-017-0895-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11783-017-0895-9

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