Start-up of a fll-scale system for short-cut nitrification and Anammox in treatment of pharmaceutical wastewater

Abstract:

In order to broaden the application area of the new nitrogen removal technology, A full-scale system for short-cut nitrification and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (Anammox) was investigated in the nitrogen removal from a strong-ammonium pharmaceutical wastewater. When the influent ammonium concentration was (430.40±55.43) mg/L, ammonia removal efficiency was (81.75±9.10) %. The results showed that the short-cut nitrification and Anammox system could successfully remove nitrogen from the pharmaceutical wastewater. The start-up of short-cut nitrification system took about 74 d and the nitrite accumulation efficiency was (52.11±9.13) %, the two-step mode using synthetic wastewater and actual wastewater was suitable for the start-up of short-cut nitrification system. The start-up of Anammox system took about 145 d and the maximum volumetric nitrogen removal rate was 6.35 kgN/(m3·d), which were dozens of times higher than those for the conventional nitrification–denitrification process. The strategy achieving Anammox sludge by self-growth and biocatalyst addition was suitable for the start-up of Anammox system.

Key words:full-scale reactor, short-cut nitrification, Anammox, pharmaceutical wastewater, start-up