High-rate nitrification of electronic industry wastewater by using nitrifying granules

Nitrifying granules have a high sedimentation property and an ability to maintain a large amount of nitrifying bacteria in a reaction tank. Our group has examined the formation process of nitrifying granules and achieved high-rate nitrification for an inorganic synthetic wastewater using these granules. In this research, a pilot-scale test plant with an 850-liter reaction tank was assembled in a semiconductor manufacturing factory in order to conduct a continuous water conduction test using real electronics industry wastewater. The aim was to observe the formation of nitrifying granules and determine the maximum ammonia removal rate. The average granule diameter formed during the experiment was 780 μm and the maximum ammonia removal rate was observed to be 1.5 kgN·m^-3·day^-1 at 20 °C, which is 2.5-5 times faster than traditional activated sludge methods. A fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis showed that β-proteobacterial ammonia oxidizing bacteria and the Nitrospira-like nitrite-oxidizing bacteria dominate the bacteria population in the granules, and their strong aggregation capacity might confer some benefits to the formation of these nitrifying granules.