Nitrogen removal from digester supernatant via nitrite--SBR or SHARON?

Separate biological elimination of nitrogen from the digester supernatant of a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) was investigated in pilot and full-scale plants. Denitrification mainly via nitrite was achieved in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) and a continuous flow reactor (CSTR or SHARON). Suppression of nitrite oxidation in the SBR was feasible at short aerobic/anaerobic intervals allowing for immediate denitrification of the produced nitrite. Nitrate production could also be stopped by exposing the biomass to anaerobic conditions for 11 days. Temporarily high concentrations (up to 80 gNH3-Nm(-3)) of free ammonia could not be considered as the major reason for inhibiting nitrite oxidation. In a full-scale SBR plant 90% of the nitrogen load was denitrified in a total hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 1.6 days and with a sludge age between 15 and 20 days. Ethanol and methanol were used for denitrification. The specific average substrate consumption was 2.2 gCOD(dosed) g(-1)N(removed) with an effective biomass yield of 0.2 gCOD(biomass) g(-1)COD(dosed). No dosing with base was required. In the SHARON process full nitrogen elimination was achieved only with a total HRT greater than 4 days at 29 degrees C. The overall costs were estimated at 1.4 euros kg(-1)N(removed) for the SBR and 1.63 euros kg(-1)N(removed) in SHARON mode, respectively. The SHARON process is simple in operation (CSTR) but the tank volume has to be significantly greater than in SBR.