Wastewater treatment plants in the Chesapeake Bay region are becoming more interested in external carbon sources for denitrification. This is in response to the recent regulations to remediate the Chesapeake Bay, which will limit effluent total nitrogen to near 3 mg/L for plants, thus requiring near complete elimination of inorganic nitrogen species. Since sufficient internal carbon is usually not available for complete denitrification, external carbon is needed to supplement internal sources. Of particular interest is the use of an alternate external carbon source to replace the least expensive source methanol. This study focuses on three commonly available external carbon sources: methanol, ethanol and acetate. The aim of this study was to obtain the specific denitrification rate (SDNR) of the substrates under several conditions. Sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were set up to first grow biomass to the specified substrate while in situ SDNRs were conducted concurrently. Once the biomass was grown with the corresponding substrate, a series of ex situ SDNRs were performed using various biomass/substrate combinations to evaluate response to substrate combinations at 13°C. Results from this study indicate that the SDNRs for biomass grown on methanol, ethanol and acetate were 9.2 mg NO3‐N/g VSS/hr, 30.4 mg NO3‐N/gVSS/hr and 31.7 mg NO3‐N/g VSS/hr, respectively, suggesting that acetate and ethanol were equally effective external carbon sources followed by much lower SDNR using methanol. Ethanol could be used with methanol biomass with similar rates as that of methanol. Additionally, methanol was rapidly acclimated to ethanol grown biomass suggesting that the two substrates could be interchanged to grow respective populations with a minimum lag period.
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Research Article|
July 01 2008
Characterizing denitrification kinetics at cold temperature using various carbon sources in lab-scale sequencing batch reactors
Yalda Mokhayeri;
1Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
E-mail: [email protected]
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Rumana Riffat;
Rumana Riffat
1Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Imre Takacs;
Imre Takacs
2EnviroSim Associates, Ltd, 7 Innovation Dr., Flamborough, Ontario L9H7H9, Canada E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Peter Dold;
Peter Dold
2EnviroSim Associates, Ltd, 7 Innovation Dr., Flamborough, Ontario L9H7H9, Canada E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Charles Bott;
Charles Bott
3Civil and Environmental Engineering, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, USA E-mail: [email protected]
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Jeneva Hinojosa;
Jeneva Hinojosa
4Civil and Environmental Engineering Department, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA E-mail: [email protected]
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Walter Bailey;
Walter Bailey
5DC Water and Sewer Authority, 5000 Overlook Ave, SW, Washington, DC 20032, USA E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Sudhir Murthy
Sudhir Murthy
5DC Water and Sewer Authority, 5000 Overlook Ave, SW, Washington, DC 20032, USA E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]
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Water Sci Technol (2008) 58 (1): 233–238.
Citation
Yalda Mokhayeri, Rumana Riffat, Imre Takacs, Peter Dold, Charles Bott, Jeneva Hinojosa, Walter Bailey, Sudhir Murthy; Characterizing denitrification kinetics at cold temperature using various carbon sources in lab-scale sequencing batch reactors. Water Sci Technol 1 July 2008; 58 (1): 233–238. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/wst.2008.670
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