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Rapid Granulation in and Start‐Up of a Hybrid Anoxic Reactor for Biological Denitrification
Author(s) -
Bhuvanesh Surianarayanan,
Sreekrishnan Trichur Ramaswamy
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
chemical engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-4125
pISSN - 0930-7516
DOI - 10.1002/ceat.201500136
Subject(s) - granulation , denitrification , denitrifying bacteria , anoxic waters , settling , wastewater , nitrate , bioreactor , environmental science , waste management , environmental engineering , chemistry , pulp and paper industry , materials science , environmental chemistry , engineering , nitrogen , organic chemistry , composite material
Nitrate in the groundwater can cause a number of health and environmental issues. Therefore, a novel denitrifying reactor was investigated regarding rapid granulation of biomass and reactor start‐up. The effects of the wastewater characteristics, reactor operating conditions, and reactor geometry on microbial granulation were studied. It was possible to achieve granulation in just 15 days of reactor start‐up. In 15 days, the settling velocity of the granules was almost tenfold higher than that of seed sludge. The reactor was able to handle a nitrate loading rate of 460 g NO 3 ‐N m −3 d −1 in just 30 days of reactor start‐up, with a removal efficiency of almost 100 %. Based on the experimental observations, a hypothesis for the cause of the rapid granulation is proposed.