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Pilot study on the treatment of low carbon and nitrogen ratio municipal sewage by A1/O2/A3/A4/O5 sludge-membrane coupling process with multi-point inflow

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Abstract

A new multi-point inflow pre-anoxic/oxic/anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A1/O2/A3/A4/O5) sludge-membrane coupling process and pilot plant were developed and designed to solve the problem of nitrogen and phosphorus removal of low carbon and nitrogen (C/N) ratio domestic sewage in southern China. The removal effect and transformation rule of organic matter, nitrogen, and phosphorus in the system were studied by changing the distribution ratio of multi-point influent. The average C/N ratio of the influent was 2.09 and the influent distribution ratio was 1:1. When the temperature was 16–25 °C, the average concentrations of chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammonia nitrogen (NH4+- N), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) in the effluent were 21.31 (±2.65), 0.60 (±0.24), 12.76 (±1.09), and 0.34 (±0.05) mg/L, respectively, and their average removals are 87.3 (±1.2)%, 98.7 (±0.4)%, 74.1 (±1.3)%, and 88.1 (±0.4)% respectively. When the low temperature was 12–15 °C, the average removals were 78.6 (±1.1)%, 90.5 (±1.3)%, 73.7 (±1.13)%, and 86.6 (±1.7)%, respectively. Compared with the traditional anaerobic/anoxic/aerobic (A2O) process under the same conditions, the TN removal was increased by 15.4%, and the TP removal was increased by 22.2%. This system has obvious advantages in treating wastewater with low C/N ratio, thereby solving the problem wherein the effluent of biological phosphorus removal from low C/N ratio domestic sewage was difficult when it was lower than 0.5 mg/L.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the support of the platform of Anhui biological aerated filter Engineering Research Center.

Availability of data and materials

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request and I declare that (the/all other) data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.

Funding

This research was carried out with the financial support of China National science and Technology major project for water pollution control and Treatment (grant No. 2017ZX07602001), Anhui Huaqi Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan, Anhui, China

    De-Wei Zhang, Jun-Tian Zheng, Jun Zheng, Meng-Ke Zhao, Meng-Lin Wang & Shi-Hua Zhang

  2. Anhui Huaqi Environmental Protection Technology Co. Ltd., Ma’anshan, Anhui, China

    De-Wei Zhang & Jun Zheng

  3. BAF Engineering Technology Research Center of Anhui Province, Ma’anshan, Anhui, China

    De-Wei Zhang, Jun-Tian Zheng, Jun Zheng & Meng-Ke Zhao

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ZDW modified the paper; ZDW and ZJT wrote the manuscript; ZJ reviewed the rationality of the structure of the paper; ZMK, WML, and ZSH analyzed the data of the paper.

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Correspondence to De-Wei Zhang.

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Zhang, DW., Zheng, JT., Zheng, J. et al. Pilot study on the treatment of low carbon and nitrogen ratio municipal sewage by A1/O2/A3/A4/O5 sludge-membrane coupling process with multi-point inflow. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 609–621 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15721-5

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