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Effects of loading rate and aeration on nitrogen removal and N2O emissions in intermittently aerated sequencing batch reactors treating slaughterhouse wastewater at 11 °C

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Abstract

This study aimed to find optimal operation conditions for nitrogen removal from high strength slaughterhouse wastewater at 11 °C using the intermittently aerated sequencing batch reactors (IASBRs) so as to provide an engineering control strategy for the IASBR technology. Two operational parameters were examined: (1) loading rates and (2) aeration rates. Both the two parameters affected variation of DO concentrations in the IASBR operation cycles. It was found that to achieve efficient nitrogen removal via partial nitrification–denitrification (PND), “DO elbow” point must appear at the end of the last aeration period. There was a correlation between the ammonium oxidizing bacteria (AOB)/nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) ratio and the average DO concentrations in the last aeration periods; when the average DO concentrations in the last aeration periods were lower than 4.86 mg/L, AOB became the dominant nitrifier population, which benefited nitrogen removal via PND. Both the nitrogen loading rate and the aeration rate influenced the population sizes of AOB and NOB. To accomplish efficient nitrogen removal via PND, the optimum aeration rate (A, L air/min) applied can be predicted according to the average organic loading rates based on mathematical equations developed in this study. The research shows that the amount of N2O generation in the aeration period was reduced with increasing the aeration rate; however, the highest N2O generation in the non-aeration period was observed at the optimum aeration rates.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the financial support provided by the China Scholarship Council (CSC), the Department of Civil Engineering, NUI Galway, and National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2012AA06A304).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Technology, Xiamen University of Technology, Xiamen, 361024, China

    Min Pan

  2. Civil Engineering, College of Engineering and Informatics, National University of Ireland, Galway, Ireland

    Min Pan & Xinmin Zhan

  3. School of Civil Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, 230009, China

    Zhenhu Hu

  4. Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Science and Technology, Department of Environment, Yangtze Delta Region Institute of Tsinghua University, Jiaxing, 314006, Zhejiang, China

    Rui Liu

Authors
  1. Min Pan
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  2. Zhenhu Hu
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  3. Rui Liu
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  4. Xinmin Zhan
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Correspondence to Rui Liu or Xinmin Zhan.

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Pan, M., Hu, Z., Liu, R. et al. Effects of loading rate and aeration on nitrogen removal and N2O emissions in intermittently aerated sequencing batch reactors treating slaughterhouse wastewater at 11 °C. Bioprocess Biosyst Eng 38, 681–689 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-014-1307-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00449-014-1307-1

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