Hydrogenotrophic denitrification for tertiary nitrogen removal from municipal wastewater using membrane diffusion packed-bed bioreactor

A lab-scale membrane diffusion packed-bed bioreactor was used to investigate hydrogenotrophic denitrification for tertiary nitrogen removal from municipal wastewater. After start-up, the bioreactor had been operated for 165 days by stepwise increasing influent loading rates at 30 and 15 °C. The results indicated that this bioreactor could achieve relatively high nitrogen removal efficiencies. The denitrification rates reached 0.250 and 0.230 kg N/(m3 d) at 30 and 15 °C respectively. The total nitrogen concentration in effluent was entirely below 2.0 mg/L at the steady operation state. The average increase of total organic carbon in effluent was approximately 0.41 mg/L, suggesting the risk of organic residue can be completely controlled. Dissolved oxygen (DO) did not show obviously negative effects on hydrogenotrophic denitrification. There was only slight decrease of DO concentration in effluent, which demonstrated almost all of the hydrogen was used for nitrate reduction.