Dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) during batch denitrification of low concentrations of nitrate using suspended and attached biomass

摘要

The occurrence and removal of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is an issue of increasing importance for the reclamation of treated wastewater. Effluent DON may act as a precursor of disinfection by-products during wastewater disinfection and may contribute to eutrophication of receiving surface waters. The aim of this study was to understand the effect of the post-denitrification process on final effluent DON (organic nitrogen filtered by 0.45 mum pore size) concentration to further gain knowledge on how to optimize denitrifying filtration, in order to reach the required discharge standards. To evaluate DON variation, denitrification batch experiments were carried out with suspended and attached biomass under different shear conditions. For both conditions, with suspended and attached biomass, DON concentration did not increase or decrease during the denitrification process with addition of an external carbon source. Moreover, the increase of shear rate did not affect the DON concentration. Apparently, there is no direct link between DON evolution and the denitrification process itself.