Biological nitrogen removal from landfill leachate by deammonification assisted by heterotrophic denitrification in a rotating biological contactor (RBC)

Abstract

Due to negative environmental effects of nitrogen discharge to recipients and increasingly stringent effluent standards, effective nitrogen removal is necessity. Biological methods are the simplest and cheapest way to treat wastewater; however, it may become an extremely expensive option when high influent nitrogen concentrations are measured and there is a lack of biodegradable organic carbon. Therefore, there is a great need to find new solutions and improve existing technologies. The deammonification is an excellent example of such a new process that requires considerably low amounts of organic carbon and oxygen in comparison to conventional nitrification/denitrification. The main objective of presented research was to investigate an Anammox process accompanied with autotrophic nitrification and heterotrophic denitrification in one rotating biological contactor (RBC). During the research period, it was possible to carry out the Anammox process in low temperature below 20 °C. Additionally, it was found that the process is insensitive to high nitrite concentration in the reactor, up to 100 g NO2-N m−3, resulting only in a temporary decrease in removal rates. Furthermore, analysis of data indicated that the Stover-Kincannon model can be used for the description of ammonium and nitrite removal processes.