Effects of Environmental Factors on Nitrite Accumulation in a Strong Nitrogen Removal System

The high concentration of N in the wastewater from livestock farming generally renders the efficiency of the wastewater treatment. Therefore, removal of N in livestock wastewater is crucial for successful treatment. The current study was conducted to investigate the optimum conditions for partial nitrification under anaerobic condition following nitritation in TPAD-BNR(two-phase anaerobic digestion-biological nitrogen removal) operating system. Sequential operating test to stimulate partial nitrification in reactor showed that partial nitrification occurred at a ratio of 1.24 in -N:-N. With this result, a wide range of factors affecting stable nitritation were examined through regression analysis. In the livestock wastewater treatment procedure, the hydraulic retention time (HRT) and pH range for optimum nitrite accumulation in the reactor were 1-1.5 days and 7-8, respectively. It was appeared that accumulation of -N in the reactor is due to inhibition of the -N oxidizer by free ammonia (FA) while the effect of free nitrous acid was minimal. Nitrification was not influenced by DO concentration at a range of 2.0-3.0 mg/L and the difference in the growth rate between -N oxidizer and -N oxidizer was dependent on the temperature in the reactor.