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Mixed sulfur–iron particles packed reactor for simultaneous advanced removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from secondary effluent

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Abstract

A mixed sulfur–iron particles packed reactor (SFe reactor) was developed to simultaneously remove total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) of the secondary effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plants. Low effluent TN (<1.5 mg/L) and TP (<0.3 mg/L) concentrations were simultaneously obtained, and high TN removal rate [1.03 g N/(L·d)] and TP removal rate [0.29 g P/(L·d)] were achieved at the hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 0.13 h. Kinetic models describing denitrification were experimentally obtained, which predicted a higher denitrification rate [1.98 g N/(L·d)] of SFe reactor than that [1.58 g N/(L·d)] of sulfur alone packed reactor due to the mutual enhancement between sulfur-based autotrophic denitrification and iron-based chemical denitrification. A high TP removal obtained in SFe reactor was attributed to chemical precipitation of iron particles. Microbial community analysis based on 16S rRNA revealed that autotrophic denitrifying bacteria Thiobacillus and Sulfuricella were the dominant genus, indicating that autotrophic denitrification played important role in nitrate removal. These results indicate that sulfur and iron particles can be packed together in a single reactor to effectively remove nitrate and phosphorus.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups (no. 21221004), the Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (no. 2011ZX07317-002), and Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, People’s Republic of China

    Shenghui Wang, Peng Liang & Xia Huang

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  1. Shenghui Wang
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  2. Peng Liang
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  3. Zhongqin Wu
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  4. Fengfeng Su
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  5. Lulu Yuan
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  6. Yanmei Sun
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  7. Qing Wu
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  8. Xia Huang
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Correspondence to Peng Liang or Xia Huang.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Wang, S., Liang, P., Wu, Z. et al. Mixed sulfur–iron particles packed reactor for simultaneous advanced removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from secondary effluent. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 415–424 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3370-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3370-1

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