Nitrification parameter measurement for pliant design: experience and experimental issues CD with new methods

摘要

Nitrification kinetics are important for process design, optimization, and capacity rating of activated sludge wastewater treatment plants. A Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) project on Methods for Wastewater Characterization in Activated Sludge Modeling (WERF, 2003) focused significantly on the development of procedures for measuring the nitrifier maximum specific growth rate, mu(AUT). In addition, the importance of (and lack of data for) the nitrifier decay rate, b(AUT), was identified. This paper describes three bench-scale methods for measuring mu(AUT): the Low F/M SBR, Washout and High F/M methods. During the WERF project, the importance of pH and temperature control was investigated briefly; this paper summarizes further experimental work performed to address these issues. A summary of mu(AUT) measurements in a number of locations and using the different measurement techniques is provided.