Long-term performance evaluation of down-flow hanging sponge reactor regarding nitrification in a full-scale experiment in India

Takashi Onodera; Tsutomu Okubo; Shigeki Uemura; Takashi Yamaguchi; Akiyoshi Ohashi; Hideki Harada

doi:10.1016/j.biortech.2016.01.005

Long-term performance evaluation of down-flow hanging sponge reactor regarding nitrification in a full-scale experiment in India

Bioresour Technol. 2016 Mar:204:177-184. doi: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.01.005. Epub 2016 Jan 8.

Authors

Takashi Onodera¹, Tsutomu Okubo², Shigeki Uemura², Takashi Yamaguchi³, Akiyoshi Ohashi⁴, Hideki Harada⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Regional Environmental Research Center, National Institute for Environmental Studies, 16-2 Onogawa, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8506, Japan.
² Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kisarazu College, 2-11-1 Kiyomidaihigashi, Kisarazu, Chiba 292-0041, Japan.
³ Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, 1603-1 Kamitomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata 940-2188, Japan.
⁴ Department of Social and Environmental Engineering, Hiroshima University, 1-4-1 Kagamiyama Higashi, Hiroshima 739-8527, Japan.
⁵ New Industry Creation Hatchery Center, Tohoku University, 6-6-04 Aoba, Aramakiaza, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8579, Japan. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 26774194
DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2016.01.005

Abstract

The first full-scale down-flow hanging sponge (DHS) reactor applied to post-treatment of effluent from an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor for the treatment of municipal sewage was evaluated, with emphasis on nitrification. The full-scale DHS reactor was successfully operated at a hydraulic retention time of 1.5h for over 1800 days in India. The DHS reactor produced effluent with 6 mg L(-1) ammonium nitrogen, corresponding to 79% removal efficiency. The total nitrogen removal by the DHS reactor was 65%. The high process performance of the DHS reactor was supported by its distinctive characteristics of (1) high dissolved oxygen of 5.4 mg L(-1) in the DHS effluent without forced ventilation, (2) dense retained sludge in the range of 23-46 gVSS Lsponge(-1), and (3) adequate sludge activity of 52 mgN gVSS(-1) day(-1) for nitrification. The full-scale experiment has proven that the DHS reactor has practical applicability to developing countries.

Keywords: Developing countries; Down-flow hanging sponge; Full-scale experiment; Municipal sewage; Nitrification.

Publication types

Evaluation Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Anaerobiosis
Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis
Bioreactors*
India
Nitrification*
Nitrogen / analysis
Nitrogen / chemistry
Sewage
Waste Management / instrumentation
Waste Management / methods*

Substances

Sewage
Nitrogen