title: Nitrogen removal in a two-stage, re-circulating waste stabilisation pond system.
abstract: Waste stabilisation ponds are used widely in Australia and other parts of the world for treating wastewater from domestic and a wide range of industrial sources. It remains a popular form of treatment for wastewater for many small rural towns. The development of a two-stage, re-circulating waste stabilisation pond incorporating algal-bacterial biofilm represents a new approach to increasing the functioning biomass within the water column to improve treatment efficiency. This new approach will be a more viable and economical option for most of the existing waste stabilisation ponds to achieve significant nitrogen removal than converting them to another form of biological nutrient removal processes. A laboratory-scale, two-stage, re-circulating system incorporating "Bio-Tube" plastic modules as attached growth medium has been tested using synthetic wastewater. It has been proven that nitrification-denitrification was the primary mechanism for nitrogen removal in such a system operated under complete mix conditions. During the experimental period, average removal efficiencies of 90-95% of ammonia nitrogen and 65-85% of total nitrogen removal were achieved with influent COD of 600 mg/L and total nitrogen of 70 mg/L.
authors.affiliation: School of Engineering and Information Technology, Faculty of Science & Technology, Deakin University, Geelong, Australia.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Baskaran
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Farago
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D001419:Bacteria / Q000378:metabolism*; D019149:Bioreactors; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D009584:Nitrogen / Q000378:metabolism*; D010100:Oxygen / Q000032:analysis; D013696:Temperature; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D009584:Nitrogen; D010100:Oxygen