ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Initial Start-up Characteristics of Anaerobic
Ammonium Oxidation in a UASB Reactor
1,
1,
1,
2,
1, 3 1 | State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection,
Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu , China |
2 | Sichuan Shutong Geotechnical Engineering Company-Water Resources and Environmental
Engineering Company, Chengdu, China |
3 | Department of International Environmental and Agricultural Science, Tokyo University
of Agriculture and Technology, Tokyo, Japan |
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Wenlai Xu
State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China, China
State Key Laboratory of Geohazard Prevention and Geoenvironment Protection, Chengdu University of Technology, Chengdu 610059, China, China
Submission date: 2019-06-03
Final revision date: 2019-07-25
Acceptance date: 2019-07-25
Online publication date: 2020-02-05
Publication date: 2020-03-31
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2020;29(3):2081–2089
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Anammox (anaerobic ammonium oxidation) is a promising technology to remove nitrogen from
wastewater, but the long start-up time limits its practical application. This study used an up-flow
anaerobic sludge bed (UASB) reactor, selected anaerobic granular sludge as inoculating sludge, and
maintained pH (7.8-8.2), temperature (30-35°C), and DO (≤0.5 mg L-1) to start an anammox process.
The initial start-up process occurred in three stages: cell lysis phase, activity lag phase, activity elevation
phase. In the cell lysis (1-2 d) and activity lag (3-4 d) phases, denitrification was the main reaction
and TN removal rates were 36.72% and 52.34%, respectively. In the activity elevation phase (5-30 d),
denitrification weakened, anammox activity strengthened, NH4+-N removal rate was increased greatly,
NO2--N removal rate took on the trend of increasing at first and decreasing later, and the average removal
rate of TN rose to 74.33% and reached the maximum rate of 81.91%. The variations of sludge bed in the
cell lysis phase and activity lag phase were not obvious; but in the activity elevation phase, the sludge
bed gradually varied from the bottom to the top, and the color of the sludge changed from black to
brown, and a little sludge was red.
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