Comparison of Simultaneous Nitrification and Denitrification for Three Different Reactors

Discharge of high NH4-N containing wastewater into water bodies has become a critical and serious issue due to its negative impact on water and environmental quality. In this research, the performance of three different reactors was assessed and compared with regard to the removal of NH4-N from wastewater. The highest nitrogen removal efficiency of 98.3% was found when the entrapped sludge reactor (ESR), in which the sludge was entrapped in polyethylene glycol polymer, was used. Under intermittent aeration, nitrification and denitrification occurred simultaneously in the aerobic and anaerobic periods. Moreover, internal carbon was consumed efficiently for denitrification. On the other hand, internal carbon consumption was not found to occur in the suspended sludge reactor (SSR) and the mixed sludge reactor (MSR) and this resulted in nitrogen removal efficiencies of SSR and MSR being 64.7 and 45.1%, respectively. Nitrification and denitrification were the main nitrogen removal processes in the aerobic and anaerobic periods, respectively. However, due to the absence of sufficient organic carbon, denitrification was uncompleted resulting in high NO3-N contents in the effluent.