Journal Home page : www.jeb.co.in E-mail : editor@jeb.co.

in

459

JEB
Journal of Environmental Biology
ISSN: 0254- 8704 CODEN: JEBIDP

Evaluation of biological removal efficiency in a UCT process treating municipal wastewater during start-up stage
Zhu Wang1,Bo Liu1*, Yong-de Liu2 and Fujun Wan1
1

State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, China 2 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, 450001, China *Corresponding Author email : yongboliu@163.com

Abstract
This study reports the performance of University of Cape Town (UCT) municipal wastewater treatment plant, during the startup stage with the focus on the relationship between hydraulic retention time (HRT) and biological nutrient removal (BNR) efficiency. The entire experimental period was 144 days, divided into four periods. Results showed that the removal efficiency of TN, NH4+N, and Kjeldahl nitrogen (KN) was closely related to the HRT. Furthermore, the biodegradation kinetics analysis was used to calculate the specific degradation rates of pollutants. The GPSX modeling was also used to examine the effect of the UCT pilot plant on BNR. The UCT pilot plant used in this study achieved high BNR efficiency even during the startup stage. With HRT of 24 hr (Period 1, day 140, data set 110), the highest levels of TN, NH 4+N and KN removal efficiency were approximately 72, 76 and 78%, respectively. The COD showed consistent high removal efficiency, with the highest level of approximately 96% at HRT of 15 hr (Period 3, day 81120, data set 2130). The TP removal efficiency rose at first and subsequently decreased abruptly. The maximum removal efficiency was 85% with HRT of 19 hr (Period 2, day 4180, data set 1120). With the optimal HRT 19 hr, the average removal efficiency values of COD, TP, TN, NH4+N and KN were 89, 80, 65, 67 and 68%, respectively. The GPSX modeling results indicated that the UCT process was effective in COD, TP and TN removal.

Publication Info
Paper received: 20 May 2012 Revised received: 19 June 2012 Accepted: 17 August 2012

Key words
UCT process, Hydraulic retention time, Biological nutrient removal, Specific degradation rate

Introduction Increasing awareness on the environmental impact of pollutant discharge gave rise to stricter effluent standards in relation to nutrient effluent values. The standards are imposed through legislations and heightened by social pressure (Hao et al., 2001). In China, the maximum nutrient effluent concentrations, particularly of nitrogen and phosphorus, are strictly controlled (Peng and Ge 2011). Thus, the pilot-scale process employed in the University of Cape Town (UCT) was evaluated in order to meet the requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency. The UCT process combines the steps of denitrification cascade for integrated efficient removal of nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon.
Triveni Enterprises, Lucknow (India )

Generally, the anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A2/O) technology is characterized with high biological nutrient removal (BNR), optimized performance, operational assurance, good settling sludge and low operational cost (Fan et al., 2009; Chen et al., 2011). The phosphorus is released in anaerobic compartment, and denitrification occurs in the anoxic compartment, while the aerobic compartment is often designed for phosphorus uptake (Kuba et al., 1997). However, the biological phosphorus removal process is effective due to the high concentration of dissolved oxygen and nitrate in the return sludge, which is recycled to the anaerobic zone (Monclsa et al., 2010). The
Journal of Environmental Biology, Vol. 34, 459-464, April 2013

Journal of Environmental Biology, April 2013

460

Z. Wang et al. contents are recycled to the anoxic zone. Subsequently, the contents of the anoxic zone are recycled to the anaerobic compartment. The recycling sequence decreases the chance of introducing residual nitrate and DO into the anaerobic compartment. The internal return (IR) can be controlled to maintain zero nitrates in effluent from the anoxic reactor, thus ensuring that no nitrates will be returned to the anaerobic reactor (Vesilind, 2004). The pilot plant has a total operational volume of approximately 128 l and consists of an anaerobic reactor (10 l), an anoxic reactor and an aerobic reactor. Denitrification takes place in the anoxic reactors with an operational volume of 26 l, whereas nitrification and carbon oxidation are accomplished in the aerobic bioreactors, each with an operational volume of 90 l. Finally, a clarifier (2 l) is used for sludge separation and recycling. The processing proceeds in the anaerobic reactor via the anoxic reactor. Similarly, in the aerobic reactor, the sludge is recycled and forwarded to the anoxic reactor. The UCT pilot plant was fed with raw municipal wastewater from the sewage system of Xuzhou City, China. Specifically, 20 m3 tanks full of raw municipal wastewater were delivered once or twice per week, depending on the influent volume needed. The entire experimental period lasted for 144 days, which was divided into four periods. The specific period divisions and operational conditions of the UCT pilot plant system are shown in Table 1. The experiment was conducted at room temperature (22-27 C). The volume of the mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) was 2100300 mg l-1. During sludge recycling, the sludge IR and RAS rates were set as equal to the influent flow rate of each period. The sludge volume index (SVI) of the clarifier was maintained between 60 and 120. The sludge residence time was maintained between 10 and 20 days. Modeling methods: In this study, GPS-X software was used to test the effect of the UCT process (Olsson and Newell, 1999; Metcalf and Eddy, 2003). Static and dynamic simulation processes were carried out using the models of ASM2/2d that represent nearly all the process units used in the UCT pilot plant (Brdjanovic et al., 2000; Meijer et al., 2000). The concentration of the influent was maintained same with the UCT pilot plant influent. The simulations were tested to evaluate the UCT process at different HRT and to implement the UCT process with the help of the AQUASIM 2.0 computer software package (Reichert, 1994). Water quality monitoring: The characteristics of influent wastewater in the UCT pilot plant are shown in Table 2. Once the operational conditions were set, the pilot plant ran smoothly until it reached a steady state. After confirmation, sampling and analysis, a set of operational conditions for the next period was determined (Vaiopoulou

entry of DO with returned sludge into the anaerobic reactor affects the anaerobic condition. The P removal capability of the A2/O process may also be affected by the high nitrate concentration in the anaerobic compartment, which promotes the growth of non-phosphate accumulating organisms. These organisms compete against phosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) for the organic substrate (Mino et al., 1998; Hu et al., 2002). Therefore, it is extremely significant to optimize the A2/O processes to provide favorable growth conditions for functional microorganisms. To address this problem, this study aimed to transform the UCT process into a modified A2/O method to minimize the effect of DO and nitrate in the anaerobic contact zone (Ekama and Wentzel, 1999; Vaiopoulou et al., 2007). The results were obtained during the startup stage of an UCT raw municipal wastewater treatment pilot plant, and the relationship between hydraulic retention time (HRT) and BNR efficiency was explored in this study. The degradation effects of the UCT process characterized by degradation kinetics and specific degradation rates (SDRs) were considered as the parameters. The UCT process was also inspected and verified by the simulation results of the GPSX software. Materials and Methods Pilot-scale wastewater treatment plant: The flow schematic of a conventional three-stage A2/O process is shown in Fig. 1a. Each stage completely involves mixed compartments, and the mixed liquor is recycled from the end of the aerobic nitrification stage to the anoxic stage for denitrification during the internal recycle process. The return activated sludge (RAS) in the clarifier underflow returns to the first stage of the anaerobic reactor. Figure 1(b) shows the schematic diagram of the UCT pilot plant used in this study. In the UCT process, both the RAS and aeration compartment
IR

RAS

WAS

b
Influent Anaerobic

QIR

QIR

Ef fluent Anoxic Aerobic Clarifier

QRAS QWAS

Fig.1 : Schematic diagram of (a) the A2/O process, and (b) the UCT process

Journal of Environmental Biology, April 2013

BNR efficiency of HCT municipal wastewater treatment plant

Table 1 : Operating conditions of the UCT pilot plant system Period Time lag (days) 1-40 41-80 81-120 121-144 Data set 1-10 11-20 21-30 31-36 Q IR (%) 100 100 100 100 Q RAS (%) 100 100 100 100 pH DO (mg l-1) Anaerobic Anoxic reactor reactor 6.2-7.5 6.0-7.6 6.1-7.6 6.5-7.5 0.1-0.2 0.1-0.2 0.1-0.2 0.1-0.2 0.3-0.5 0.3-0.5 0.2-0.5 0.3-0.5 Aerobic reactor 1.4-2.0 1.2-1.8 1.2-2.0 1.0-2.0 Flow (l d-1) 128 161 204 279

461

HRT (hr) 24 19 15 11

1 2 3 4

Table 2 : Characteristics of influent municipal wastewater (mg l-1) Period 1 2 3 4 COD 336 312 320 323 BOD 133 136 141 137 TP 5.3 5.9 5.8 5.7 TN 57.1 57.0 56.1 56.7 NH4+ -N 33.2 33.1 33.2 33.2 KN 40.1 43.2 44.1 42.5 SS 198 150 153 167 P 3.1 3.3 3.2 3.2

and Aivasidis, 2008). During the entire experimental period, samples of influent, effluent and sludge from each reactor were analyzed every 4th day. Therefore, a total of 36 data sets were obtained. The BOD, COD, NH4+-N, Kjeldahl nitrogen (KN), TN, TP, P, MLSS and SVI were determined following the standard methods of APHA (2005). The suspended solids (SS) and DO were measured using Surface Scatter 7 sc device (HACH, USA) and Z LLIG S-14 device (HACH, USA), respectively. The pH and temperature were detected online using the HACH GLI PH/ORP device (HACH, USA). The pH and DO of municipal wastewater were monitored every 24 hr. Typical pH values ranged from 6.0 and 7.6, whereas the DO in the aerobic reactor was maintained above 1 mg l-1 (Table 1). The BNR efficiency percentage was calculated by the following formula:

and t is the degradation time (hr). Results and Discussion BNR of the UCT pilot plant: As shown in Fig. 2a, the UCT pilot plant can consistently achieve a very high COD removal efficiency. The highest COD removal was approximately 96% with HRT of 15 hr (Period 3, day 81-120, data set 21-30). However, the SDRs of COD showed a fall after the rising trend. The highest level achieved was approximately 8.8010-3 hr-1 at the same HRT [Fig. 3a]. It is generally believed that a positive correlation exists between COD removal efficiency and HRT in an activated sludge process. However, in the present study, the highest COD removal efficiency was not recorded at the longest HRT (24 hr) because of the high hydraulic and organic substrate loading rates. RAS quantity descreased if HRT was lengthened and the flow rate was reduced. Abundant RAS remained in the anaerobic and anoxia reactors, thus carbon sources in the aerobic reactor, which are significant for the COD removal of microorganism, were insufficient. In the last period, a slight drop in the COD removal efficiency was observed with HRT of 11 hr, which may result from the excessively short HRT and high flow rate. At the onset, the variation tendency of the removal efficiency result of TP increased. A sudden decrease was subsequently observed (Fig. 2a). The maximum efficiency achieved with HRT of 19 h (Period 2, day 41-80, data set 1120) was 85%. The SDRs of TP remained stable and were maintained at a relatively low level during the entire experimental period (Fig. 3a). The maximum efficiency attained with HRT of 19 hr was 2.9010-3 hr-1. The mean value of TP removal efficiency was only 54% in Period 1 but increased to 79% in Period 2 and 72% in Period 3. Subsequently, a sudden decrease to 49% in Period 4 was
Journal of Environmental Biology, April 2013

BNR efficiency (%) =

C0  Ci u 100 C0

(1)

where C0 and Ci are the influent and effluent concentrations, respectively. It should be noted that the test for the degradation effects of municipal wastewater at the UCT pilot plant was conducted through the measurement of degradation kinetics. The specific degrodation rate (SDR) was calculated by the following formula (Fang et al., 1995; Valentini et al., 1997; Rizzo et al., 2009):

SDR =

P B ut

(2)

where P is the degraded pollutants (mg l-1), B is the biomass (mg l-1) which was utilized to degrade pollutants,

462
100 95 90 85 80 75 70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Z. Wang et al.

COD TP

Data set

80

b
TN + NH4 -N KN

70

60

50

40

30 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Data set

Fig. 2 : Removal efficiency of (a) COD and TP (b) TN, NH4+-N and KN

Fig. 3 : Specific degeadation rates (SDRs) of (a) COD and TP (b) TN, NH4+-N and KN

observed. This trend suggests that the optimum HRT was between 19 and 15 hr, which agrees with the generation time of PAOs. Thus, the appropriate HRT of 19 hr facilitated a good biological phosphorus removal condition. A positive correlation was found between TN, NH4+N, KN removal and HRT (Fig. 2b). The HRT of 24 hr (Period 1, day 140, data set 1-10) resulted in the highest removal efficiencies of TN, NH4+-N, and KN of 72, 76 and 78%, respectively. The variation tendency of SDRs was in accordance with removal efficiencies (Fig. 2b, 3b). The highest SDRs of TN, NH4+-N and KN at HRT of 24 hr were 1.7010-3, 1.8510-3 and 2.0510-3 hr-1, respectively. Thus, the removal efficiencies and SDRs of TN, NH4+-N and KN were considerably higher at the beginning of period 1 with HRT of 24 hr and period 2 with HRT of 19 hr than in Period 4 with HRT of 11 hr. Longer HRT resulted in higher organic substrate loading. Sufficient organic substrate and HRT, which are signs of good absorption environment, are both significant in the metabolism of denitrification microorganism. In general, denitrifying phosphorus removal was

complete throughout the experimental period and HRT is a critical parameter to BNR (Peng and Ge, 2011). However, in this study TN, NH4+-N and KN removal showed the highest BNR efficiency at HRT of 24 hr (Period 1). This facilitated the P removal efficiency, which resulted in the achievement of the highest level at HRT of 19 hr (Period 2). High NO3concentration in the reactor has been shown to induce a limitation on the P removal (Puig et al., 2008). The high concentration of nitrates in the anoxic reactor can be recirculated to the anaerobic reactor, which limits the optimal conditions for P release as well as the subsequent P uptake in the aerobic or anoxic reactor compartment. To obtain high removal percentages of P, anaerobic conditions are required for the uptake and storage of easily biodegradable organic matter and for the P release toward the final step of accumulating P under anoxic or aerobic conditions (Mino et al., 1998; Puig et al., 2008). As shown in Fig. 2 and 3, optimal denitrification efficiency and phosphorus removal were obtained with HRT of 19 hr (Period 2, day 41-80, data set 11-20), and COD removal was also as high as 89%. GPS-X modeling was used to evaluate the effect of

Journal of Environmental Biology, April 2013

BNR efficiency of HCT municipal wastewater treatment plant HRT on BNR. Fig. 4a shows that experimental results of COD were distributed equally on both sides of the simulation result line. The results suggest that COD effluent concentration derived with GPS-X software was in accordance with the experimental results and that the UCT process can be used to effectively remove COD. With regard to total SS in Fig. 4a, the experimental results show that the experiment dots were all above the simulation result line. This indicates that the sludge flocculation and settling performance of the UCT pilot plant need further optimization. Fig 4b shows that the experimental results of TN and TP are both under the simulation result line, whereas the NH4+-N experimental and simulation results showed opposite relationship. These results suggest that the GPS-X modeling presented a better effluent concentration of NH4+-N but a worse effluent concentration of TN and TP compared with the experimental results of the UCT pilot plant (Fig. 4b). Generally, the UCT process was effective in denitrification and phosphorus removal. However, the operation process has to be further optimized to accomplish higher NH4+-N removal efficiency.
30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 0 A 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5
Total nitrogen Free and ionized ammonia Total phosphorus

463

The 144 day operation of the UCT waste water plant (Data sets 1-36) showed that high BNR efficiency could be achieved even during the startup stage. With the optimal HRT of 19 hr, the removal efficiency average values of COD, TP, TN, NH4+-N, and KN were 89, 80, 65, 67 and 68%, respectively. However, the GPS-X modeling results showed that the UCT process was effective only for COD, TP and TN removal. This indicates that the operation process has to be further optimized to achieve better sludge flocculation properties and to enhance NH4+-N removal efficiency under an appropriate reaction condition. Acknowledgments We would like to thank colleagues and students from the Fudan University for maintaining the treatment systems during the study period. We are very grateful to Naomi Cappuccino of the Department of Biology, Carleton University, for the comments on the manuscript. This study was financially supported by the National Water Special Project of China (No. 2009ZX07210-002-003.1), Scientific Support Program of Jiangsu Province (BE2011722), and Joint Innovation Research Foundation of Lianyungang City, China (CXY1004). References
APHA: Standard methods for the examination of water and waste water. 21 st Edn., APHA, AWWA, WPCF, Washington, D.C., USA (2005). Brdjanovic, D., M.C.M. Van Loosdrecht, P. Versteeg, C.M. Hooijmans, G.J. Alaerts and J.J. Heijnen: Modelling COD, N and P removal in a full-scale WWTP Harlem Waarderpolder. Water Res., 34, 846-858 (2000). Chen, Y.Z., C.Y. Peng, J.H. Wang, L. Ye, L.C. Zhang and Y.Z. Peng: Effect of nitrate recycling ratio on simultaneous biological nutrient removal in a novel anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A2/O)biological aerated filter (BAF) system. Bioresour. Technol ., 102 , 5722-5727 (2011). Ekama, G.A. and M.C. Wentzel: Difficulties and developments in biological nutrient removal technology and modeling. Water Sci. Technol., 39 , 1-11 (1999). Fan, J., T. Tao, J. Zhang and G.L. You: Performance evaluation of a modified anaerobic/anoxic/oxic (A2/O) process treating low strength wastewater. Desalination, 249 , 822-827 (2009). Fang, H., H. Chui and Y.Y. Li: Effect of degradation kinetics on the microstructure of anaerobic bio granules. Water Sci. Technol., 32 , 165-172 (1995). Hao, X.D., M.C.M. Van Loosdrecht, S.C.F. Meijer and Y. Qian: Modelbased evaluation of two BNR processes-UCT and A2N. Water Res., 35 , 2851-2860 (2001). Hu, Z.R., M.C. Wentzel and G.A. Ekama: Anoxic growth of phosphate-accumulating organisms (PAOs) in biological nutrient removal activated sludge systems. Water Res., 36, 49274937 (2002). Kuba, T., M.C.M. Van Loosdrecht, F.A. Brandse and J.J. Heijnen: Occurrence of denitrifying phosphorus removing bacteria in modified UCT-type wastewater treatment plants. Water Res., 31 , 777-786 (1997). Meijer, S.C.F., M.C.M. Van Loosdrecht and J.J. Heijnen: Metabolic modelling of a full-scale biological nitrogen and phosphorus removing WWTP. Water Res., 35 , 2711-2723 (2000).

1.0

10

15

20

25

30

35

Days 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 5 10 15 20 Days 25 30 35

Flow=120 ld-1 Flow=150 ld-1 Flow=120 ld-1 Flow=250 ld-1

Total COD Total suspended solids

60 50 40 30 20 10 0

Fig. 4 : GPS-X modeling simulation of (a) TN, TP and NH4+-N and (b) Total COD and total suspended solids. Lines and dots represent simulation and experimental results, respectively

Journal of Environmental Biology, April 2013

464
Metcalf and Eddy Inc: Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Reuse. McGraw Hill, Boston (2003). Mino, T., M.C.M. Van Loosdrecht and J.J. Heijnen: Microbiology and biochemistry of the enhanced biological phosphate removal process. Water Res., 32 , 3193-3207 (1998). Monclsa, H., J. Sipma, G. Ferrero, J. Comas and I. Rodriguez-Roda: Optimization of biological nutrient removal in a pilot plant UCT-MBR treating municipal wastewater during start-up. Desalination, 250 , 592-597 (2010). Olsson, G. and B. Newell: Wastewater Treatment Systems: Modelling, Diagnosis and Control. IWA Publishing, London (1999). Peng, Y.Z. and S.J. Ge: Enhanced nutrient removal in three types of step feeding process from municipal wastewater. Bioresour. Technol., 102 , 6405-6413 (2011). Puig, S., M. Coma, H. Moncls, M.C.M. Van Loosdrecht, J. Colprim and M.D. Balaguer: Selection between alcohols and volatile fatty acids as external carbon sources for EBPR. Water Res., 42, 557-566 (2008). Reichert, P.: Concepts underlying a computer program for the

Z. Wang et al.
identification and simulation of aquatic systems. Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG), Dbendorf (1994). Rizzo, L., S. Meric, M. Guida, D. Kassinos and V. Belgiorno: Heterogenous photocatalytic degradation kinetics and detoxification of an urban wastewater treatment plant effluent contaminated with pharmaceuticals. Water Res., 43, 4070-4078 (2009). Vaiopoulou, E. and A. Aivasidis: A modified UCT method for biological nutrient removal: Configuration and performance. Chemosphere, 72, 1062-1068 (2008). Vaiopoulou, E., P. Melidis and A. Aivasidis: An activated sludge treatment plant for integrated removal of carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus. Desalination, 211 , 192-199 (2007). Valentini, A., G. Garuti, R. Alberto and T. Anderea: Anaerobic degradation kinetics of particulate organic matter: A new approach. Water Sci. Technol., 36 , 239-246 (1997). Vesilind, P.A.: Wastewater Treatment Plant Design. IWA Publishing, London (2004).

Journal of Environmental Biology, April 2013