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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

Measuring Phosphorus Release in Laboratory Microcosms for Water Quality Assessment
Published on: July 22, 2019
Effect of biologically mediated pH change on phosphorus removal in BNR system for piggery waste treatment
Euiso Choi1, Youngbeom Yu, Mingcan Cui
1Institute for Environmental Technology and Sustainable Development, Korea University, Anamdong, Seoul, Korea. echoi@korea.ac.kr
Abstract:
Since applicable amount of animal waste to farm land has been greatly reduced because of the nutrient overload, nitrogen and phosphorus removal from animal waste has received a great attention. This study was conducted to evaluate how phosphorus was removed during biological nutrient removal (BNR) from piggery waste using laboratory and full scale units operated at 25 to 40 degrees C. The phosphorus removal was performed by chemical precipitation with struvite and hydroxyapatite (HAP), cellular formation, it is basically related with pH and organic and nitrogen loads resulting in influent COD/N ratios. The removal efficiencies increased from 50 to 90% as COD/N ratios increased to 6 to 7, but carbon was not limited beyond this ratio for denitrification resulting in a stable pH. Overall, about 70% of the phosphorus removal was due to the precipitates of struvite and/or HAP, and the remaining removal was due to the cellular P formation. Any significant temperature effect on phosphorus removal was not observed within the operating temperature. In order to maximize phosphorus removal in BNR system, additional anoxic stage must be furnished prior to discharge its final effluent after oxic stage.
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