Andrea Jobbágy

Factors influencing deterioration of denitrification by oxygen entering an anoxic reactor through the surface.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the factors that influence the deterioration of denitrification in open anoxic reactors. For this investigation an ASM 1-based simulation model was developed and successfully applied to fit data from batch experiments carried out in lab-scale reactor vessels (uncovered and covered) using both clarified domestic wastewater and synthetic wastewater. Applying the verified model, simulation studies were performed to investigate the effects of available denitrifiable substrate, biomass concentration, oxygen transfer rate, and temperature on deterioration of denitrification in open anoxic reactors. It has been shown that oxygen entering an anoxic reactor through the surface may not just affect denitrification metabolically, but also kinetically, due to increased dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration exerting an inhibitory effect on the denitrification rate. When the exogenous substrate concentration in the reactor vessel is high enough for a high consumption rate, the DO concentration is kept low. The higher the biomass concentration, and thereby the consumption rate of endogenous substrate, the lower the DO concentration during the low-rate denitrification phase. At low substrate removal rates, decreasing temperature will cause the DO concentration in anoxic vessels to increase. The results suggest that assuring removal of available exogenous carbon source at high rate by staging of open anoxic bioreactors may significantly improve denitrification efficiency.

Optimization of activated sludge reactor configuration:: kinetic considerations

To evaluate and design staged activated sludge systems it is necessary to determine the biomass requirement for a given configuration. This depends on both kinetics and treatment requirements. We present a procedure to determine the optimum reactor configuration for a range of influent and effluent substrate concentrations, half saturation coefficients, and number of tanks in series for both inhibitory and non-inhibitory substrates. Dimensionless plots of the results show the minimum biomass requirement of the series relative to that for a single CSTR and the optimal relative sizes of the tanks. The plots may be used directly for staged system design and lead to the following conclusions: three tanks in series is generally best, high influent substrate concentrations and stringent discharge requirements increase the benefit of staging, and optimal tank sizing is significantly better than using equal sized tanks.

The impact of oxygen penetration on the estimation of denitrification rates in anoxic processes

Increasingly stringent effluent nitrogen criteria require that appropriate assessments of denitrification rates be made to facilitate the design of wastewater treatment systems. A zero-head-space reactor was used in comparative denitrification studies as a reference system that totally excludes oxygen. An open reactor and a reactor with a floating lid were also operated simultaneously to determine how oxygen input into typical laboratory reactors might influence observed denitrification results. Preclarified influent and activated sludge from a denitrifying domestic wastewater treatment plant were used as the carbon and biomass source, and KNO3 was used as the nitrate source. The impact of oxygen penetration proved to be highly dependent on the denitrification rate. The influence of the design of the experimental system was small when rapid nitrate consumption occurred, whereas oxygen penetration had a severe impact at low denitrification rates.

Conditions and technologies of biological wastewater treatment in Hungary

A survey has been carried out involving 55 Hungarian wastewater treatment plants in order to evaluate the wastewater quality, the applied technologies and the resultant problems. Characteristically the treatment temperature is very wide-ranging from less than 10 °C to higher than 26 °C. Influent quality proved to be very variable regarding both the organic matter (typical COD concentration range 600-1,200 mg l(-1)) and the nitrogen content (typical NH(4)-N concentration range 40-80 mg l(-1)). As a consequence, significant differences have been found in the carbon availability for denitrification from site to site. Forty two percent of the influents proved to lack an appropriate carbon source. As a consequence of carbon deficiency as well as technologies designed and/or operated with non-efficient denitrification, rising sludge in the secondary clarifiers typically occurs especially in summer. In case studies, application of intermittent aeration, low DO reactors, biofilters and anammox processes have been evaluated, as different biological nitrogen removal technologies. With low carbon source availability, favoring denitrification over enhanced biological phosphorus removal has led to an improved nitrogen removal.

Savings with upgraded performance through improved activated sludge denitrification in the combined activated sludge–biofilter system of the Southpest Wastewater Treatment Plant

The purpose of the experiments was to increase the rate of activated sludge denitrification in the combined biological treatment system of the Southpest Wastewater Treatment Plant in order to gain savings in cost and energy and improve process efficiency. Initial profile measurements revealed excess denitrification capacity of the preclarified wastewater. As a consequence, flow of nitrification filter effluent recirculated to the anoxic activated sludge basins was increased from 23,000 m3 d(-1) to 42,288 m3 d(-1) at an average preclarified influent flow of 64,843 m3 d(-1), Both simulation studies and microbiological investigations suggested that activated sludge nitrification, achieved despite the low SRT (2-3 days), was initiated by the backseeding from the nitrification filters and facilitated by the decreased oxygen demand of the influent organics used for denitrification. With the improved activated sludge denitrification, methanol demand could be decreased to about half of the initial value. With the increased efficiency of the activated sludge pre-denitrification, plant effluent COD levels decreased from 40-70 mg l(-1) to < 30-45 mg l(-1) due to the decreased likelihood of methanol overdosing in the denitrification filter.

Problems and causes of marginal nutrient availability in winery wastewater treatment

Winery wastewater treatment plants generally face severe nutrient deficiency, and therefore conventional technologies and supplementary nutrient dosing strategies may fail. The purpose of the paper is to show how traditional way of dosing N-source for marginal availability to nutrient deficient influents results in poorly settling activated sludge regardless of the application of aerated or non-aerated selectors. External N-source calculated for marginal availability resulted in nutrient deficiency due to the relatively high yield experienced (0.7 g biomass COD/g substrate COD). In the fully aerated system with overall N-deficiency, rapidly increasing overproduction of extracellular polysaccharide was experienced, leading to SVI (Sludge Volume Index) values up to 600 cm3 g−1. In the system with the non-aerated selector, initial nutrient deficiency could only be detected in the second reactor. Since neither overgrowth of floc-forming GAOs (Glycogen Accumulating Organisms) nor denitrification could be exper...

Full-scale use of glycogen-accumulating organisms for excess biological carbon removal.

The purpose of this study has been to verify the efficient full-scale applicability of glycogen-accumulating organisms (GAOs) for excess biological carbon removal, that is, for removing more carbon substrate than the amount of available nutrients would allow in the conventional activated sludge process of microbial growth. This aims to cost-effectively overcome the problem of viscous bulking occurring in a fully aerated system, with nutrient deficiency. Analytical data measured at the wastewater treatment plant of the Balatonboglár (BB) winery in Balatonboglár, Hungary, containing consecutive unaerated and aerated activated sludge basins, reflected a high performance with efficient carbon removal and good sludge settling, without dosing any external nutrient source to the severely nitrogen- and phosphorous-deficient influent. Supplementary laboratory-scale batch experiments and microbiological tests verified the abundance of GAOs in the activated sludge system and elucidated their role in efficient excess biological carbon removal.

Comparative studies on the differently operated trains of the North-Budapest Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In order to reduce the pollution load of the Danube, the North-Budapest Wastewater Treatment Plant has been upgraded to enhanced nitrogen removal by establishing a new activated sludge treatment line and modifying the existing unit for nitrification and denitrification. As both the influent flow rate and the influent chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD(5)) and total suspended solids (TSS) concentration levels remained far below the design values, setting one fourth of the reactor volume out of operation in the Old Line, and operating the nitrification reactor of the New Line with part-time aeration proved to be possible. Analytical data as well as simulation studies supported the advantage of the intermittent-aeration process in efficient N-removal. However, the lengths of the aerated periods have to be increased with decreasing temperature, and thereby effluent total nitrogen (TN) concentration can increase due to decreasing denitrification efficiency. Potential occurrence of low-dissolved oxygen (DO) bulking should be hindered through applying an efficient anoxic selector system.