Improving removal efficiency of organic matters by adding phosphorus in drinking water biofiltration treatment.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate phosphorus limitation and its effect on the removal efficiency of organic matters in drinking water biological treatment.


METHODS
Bacterial growth potential (BGP) method and a pair of parallel pilot-scale biofilters were used for the two objectives, respectively.


RESULTS
The addition of phosphorus could substantially increase the BGPs of the water samples and the effect was stronger than that of the addition of carbon. When nothing was added into the influents, both CODMn removals of the parallel biofilters (BF1 and BF2) were about 15%. When phosphate was added into its influent, BF1 performed a CODMn removal, 6.02 percentage points higher than the control filter (BF2) and its effluent had a higher biological stability. When the addition dose was < 20 micrograms.L-1, no phosphorus pollution would occur and there was a good linear relationship between the microbial utilization of phosphorus and the removal efficiency of organic matters.


CONCLUSIONS
Phosphorus was a limiting nutrient and its limitation was stronger than that of carbon. The addition of phosphate was a practical way to improve the removal efficiency of organic matters in drinking water biological treatment.
Yu
Xin
X
Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. yu-xin99@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
Zhang
Xiao-Jian
XJ
Wang
Zhan-Sheng
ZS
D001419:Bacteria / Q000254:growth & development; D019149:Bioreactors; D005374:Filtration; D007700:Kinetics; D009930:Organic Chemicals / Q000737:chemistry*; D010758:Phosphorus; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D018508:Water Purification / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards
D009930:Organic Chemicals; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D010758:Phosphorus