Titrimetric Biosensing of Biological Wastewater Treatment Plants

The development of titrimetric sensor applications to monitor biological wastewater treatment processes is shortly described, and the measurement principle (based on a pH controller) is illustrated. 3 applications that were developed during the past years are used to illustrate the capabilities of titrimetric sensors. The ammonium and the nitrate concentration can be measured to monitor the nitrification and the denitrification process respectively. Ammonium concentration measurements obtained via the titrimetric method gave similar results as an on-line ammonium analyser. Titrimetric nitrate measurements compared reasonably well with chemical nitrate measurements. Nitrification process rates could be measured via the titrimetric sensor too. For the denitrification process the titrimetric nitrate measurement was used as an input to control the carbon source dosage in the anoxic zone of a predenitrification plant. Finally, a simultaneous respirometrictitrimetric experiment was applied to measure the nitrifiable nitrogen concentration in synthetic wastewater samples.