Pilot scale study on retrofitting conventional activated sludge plant for biological nutrient removal

Europhication of receiving waters due to the discharge of nitrogen and phosphorus through the wastewater effluent has received much interest in recent years. Numerous techniques have been proposed and aimed at retrofitting the existing conventional activated sludge process for nutrient removal. A pilot-scale research program was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of a biological nutrient process for this purpose The results indicated that creating an anoxic/anaerobic zone before aeration basin significantly enhances total phosphorus (TP) and total nitrogen (TN) removal. Without internal cycle about 80 percent TP and TN removal were respectively achieved under their optimal conditions. However, adverse trends for phosphorus and nitrogen removal were observed when the ratio of return sludge to the influent was varied in the range between 0.5 and 3.0. The total phosphorus removal decreased as the concentration of BOD5 in die mixture of influent and return sludge decreased, improved sludge settling properties and reduced foaming problems were also observed during the pilot plant operation. Based upon experimental results, the strategies to modify an existing conventional activated sludge plant into a biological nutrient removal (BNR) system are discussed.