Phosphorus removal in aerated stirred tank reactor

The possibility to obtain biological phosphorus removal in strictly aerobic conditions has been investigated. Experiments, carried out in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), show the feasibility to obtain phosphorus removal without the anaerobic phase. Reactor performance in terms of phosphorus abatement kept always higher then 65% depending on adopted sludge retention time (SRT). In fact increasing SRT from 5 days to 8 days phosphorus removal and reactor performance increase but overcoming this SRT value a decreasing in reactor efficiency was recorded.