Ammonium reduction from piggery wastewater using immobilized ammonium-reducing bacteria with a full-scale sequencing batch reactor on farm

Abstract

This work aims to evaluate the efficiency of ammonium removal from piggery wastewater by an intermittent aeration (IA) sequencing batch reactor (SBR) with immobilized NH4+-reducing bacteria under mesophilic conditions. When a 20-L bench-scale SBR with 11% (v/v) of alginate beads containing NH4+-reducing bacteria was used, removal efficiency of NH4+ was 63% after 240 h. When a full-scale SBR system (available volume = 83 m3) with 0.1% (v/v) of alginate-coated light-expanded clay aggregates beads containing NH4+-reducing bacteria was used, removal efficiency of NH4+ by the full-scale intermittent aeration SBR (IA-SBR) was significantly different from both traditional intermittent aeration SBR (T-SBR) and the continuous aeration SBR with AL beads containing NH4+-reducing bacteria (P < 0.05). In summary, the IA-SBR with AL beads can significantly promote removal efficiency of NH4+ on farm.