Operation and modeling of bench-scale SBR for simultaneous removal of nitrogen and phosphorus using real wastewater

Experimental work was carried out on nitrogen and phosphorus removal from real wastewater using a bench-scale SBR process. The phosphorus removal was stable and the phosphorus concentration remaining in the reactor was maintained within 1.5 ppm, regard-less of the addition of an external carbon source. In the case of nitrogen, an external carbon source was necessary for denitrification. The effect on denitrification with the addition of various carbon sources, such as glucose, methanol, acetate, and propionate, was also investigated. Acetate was found to be the most effective among those tested in this study. When 100 ppm (theoretical oxygen demand) of sodium acetate was added, the average rate of denitrifiaction was 2.73 mg NO₃⁻-N (g MLSS)⁻¹ h⁻¹, which wasca. 4 times higher than that with the addition of 200 ppm of methanol. The phosphorus and nitrogen concentrations were both maintained within 1.5 ppm by the addition of an appropriate amount of a carbon source during a long-term operation of the SBR. The mathematical modeling was performed using Monod kinetics, other microbial kinetics, mass balances, and stoichiometry. The modeling was found to be useful for predicting the SBR operation and optimizing the HRT.