Nitrogen Removal in Recirculating Sand Filter Systems with Upflow Anaerobic Components
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 5
Abstract
Septic systems can present a risk to human health by releasing highly soluble nitrate–nitrogen into the groundwater. A research and demonstration study undertaken in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, evaluated several promising biofilter technologies for on-site nitrogen removal. Duplicate recirculating sand filter-upflow anaerobic systems with a design hydraulic loading rate of were used to treat septic tank effluent from a correctional institution and produced a treated wastewater with a total nitrogen concentration of for System 1 and for System 2, or 72.0 and 63.0% nitrogen removal, respectively. The differences between the two systems appear to have been the result of process configuration changes made over the duration of the study. This paper evaluates the nitrogen removal performance of the recirculating sand filter-upflow anaerobic systems and the effect of operational and environmental factors, including the recirculation ratio, , and temperature. Nitrogen removal was limited by the recirculation ratio with the maximum total nitrogen removal of 70.1% when the recirculation . Improved performance was also noted for temperatures and . Low temperatures adversely affected nitrification and low adversely affected denitrification. The relationships among nitrogen removal, recirculation ratio, , and temperature are also discussed.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 5 • May 2007
Pages: 464 - 470
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Feb 3, 2006
Accepted: Oct 9, 2006
Published online: May 1, 2007
Published in print: May 2007
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