Pilot-Scale Evaluation of pH-Based Control of Single Stage Deammonification Processes for Sidestream Treatment

Pilot scale sidestream reactors, utilizing a pH-based control strategy, were operated at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), Southeast Plant (SEP) for the biological treatment of anaerobically digested sludge centrate using combined partial nitritation/anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) as the main nitrogen removal pathway. Reactors were setup to functionally simulate two full-scale commercial processes common to the industry using nonproprietary, flexible, pH-based process control strategy. Results demonstrated that comparable full-scale loading rates and removal efficiencies can be reached for different reactor configurations while maintaining stable process performance using this relatively simple control strategy.