Denitrification in anaerobic digesters: A review of recent studies

Conference · Fri Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:395311

Akunna, J C

Wastewaters from food processing industries (and domestic activities) are usually treated principally for organic carbon removal. But recent standards have generated interests in nitrogen and phosphorus removal. This has led to the addition of nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal units in the existing treatment plants, thus increasing the cost of treatment operations. The need to reduce treatment costs has led to research on ways to carry out many treatment processes in a single system. One of these systems consists of anaerobic and aerobic units in series with effluent recycle. In the anaerobic unit, anaerobic digestion and denitrification take place simultaneously producing methane and nitrogen gas while in the aerobic unit, ammonia oxidation to nitrate (nitrification) takes place. This process configuration appears to give lesser problems associated with operations such as the addition of raw wastewater or external organic carbon to ensure complete denitrification. In this paper a review of the results of recent studies are presented, with special emphasis on the factors affecting treatment efficiencies (i.e., denitrification, ammonia production from nitrate, and methane production efficiencies).

• OSTI ID: 395311
• Report Number(s): CONF-9505206--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

09 BIOMASS FUELS
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
ACETIC ACID
AMMONIA
BIOSYNTHESIS
CHEMICAL OXYGEN DEMAND
DENITRIFICATION
ELECTRON TRANSFER
FOOD INDUSTRY
GLYCEROL
METHANE
METHANOGENIC BACTERIA
NITRATES
OXIDATION
WASTE WATER