The impact of precipitation and external carbon source addition on biological nutrient removal in activated sludge systems – experimental investigation and mathematical modeling

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of chemical precipitation and addition of external carbon sources on the denitrification capability and enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) interactions at the ‘Wschod’ WWTP (600,000 PE) in Gdansk (northern Poland). For this purpose, different kinds of batch experiments were carried out with the settled wastewater (without pretreatment and after coagulation-flocculation) and external carbon sources (ethanol and fusel oil). Precipitation of colloidal and particulate organic fractions has a significant effect on denitrification and EBPR. The removal of these two fractions by coagulation-flocculation resulted in the reduced process rates (30–70%). The experimental investigations were supported by both lab-scale and full-scale simulations using a newly developed model as an expansion of the Activated Sludge Model No. 2d (ASM2d). The new model accurately predicted the effects of precipitation and external carbon addition in batch experiments. Full-scale simulations revealed that addition of external carbon source can compensate the effects of precipitation resulting in a similar NO₃-N behavior compared to the reference case (without precipitation and external carbon addition). The combined effects of precipitation and addition of external carbon source resulted in a significantly different PO₄-P behavior compared to the reference case.