There are many different kinds of human activity that generate wastewater with large quantities of ammonium: petrochemical, pharmaceutical, fertiliser and food industries, leachates produced by urban solid waste disposal sites or waste from pig farms. For this reason, the European Directive for the treatment of urban wastewater 91/271/EEC explicitly demands the removal of ammonium from wastewater. The BNR process is the most common method for removing ammonium from wastewater. The industries that frost bottles produce high-strength ammonium wastewater. There are three reasons to consider the biological treatment of this wastewater as a very complex process. First of all, the ammonium concentration is 5000 mg N·L-1. Secondly, it hasn't organic matter and it is not possible to achieve a complete denitrification. Finally, this wastewater contains fluoride, which is removed by a physical-chemical process. However, if there is any problem in this process, the fluoride could enter to the biological treatment and could inhibit the nitrification process. The study has been developed in a pilot plant. The pilot plant worked in continuous for three years with two different configuration: single and two-sludge systems. In the first configuration, the requirement of two new compounds was assessed: sodium bicarbonate as alkalinity source for the nitrification and biodegradable organic matter as carbon source for the denitrification. The main objectives of this PhD are: the design of a biological treatment for this wastewater and the study of the most important parameters of the biological nitrogen removal (BNR) process with high-strength ammonium wastewaters. The first four chapter explain the study of the most important parameters of the BNR: - Effect of the influent COD/N ratio on BNR process. - Effect of temperature on nitrification of high-strength ammonium wastewater. - Effect of temperature and external carbon source on denitrification of high-strength ammonium wastewater. - Inhibition of the nitrification by ammonium, nitrite and fluoride. The others chapters explain the development of an control system of the process and a mathematical model. Finally, a biological treatment system for this wastewater was designed.
Eliminación biológica de nitrógeno en un efluente con alta carga. Estudio de los parámetros del proceso y diseño de una depuradora industrial
Carrera Muyo, J. (Author). 23 Feb 2001
Student thesis: Doctoral thesis
Student thesis: Doctoral thesis