NITRIFICATION, DENITRIFICATION AND PHOSPHORUS REMOVAL IN SEQUENTIAL BATCH REACTORS

A study was conducted to evaluate the biological nutrient removal perf ormance of three full-scale sequential batch reactor (SBR) plants. The plants were designed to handle an average flow of 0.023, 0.025, 0.001 m(3)/s, respectively. These SBR systems were designed to achieve nitr ification, denitrification and biological phosphorus removal. Influent and effluent samples were analyzed for CBOD5, TSS, ammonia nitrogen n itrate nitrogen, total phosphorus, pH and temperature. The SBR perform ance data show that typical SBR designs can meet effluent CBOD5 and TS S concentrations of less than 10 mg/l. With some additional design mod ifications, SBRs can successfully nitrify to limits of 1-2 mg/l NH3-N. They also appear to achieve phosphorus removal, if desired, without c hemicals addition to less than 1.0 mg/l.