Abstract
This work aimed to find inexpensive alternatives that could serve both as carbon source and biofilm carrier for heterotrophic denitrification in treating nitrate contaminated waters. To ascertain cost efficiency, the effectiveness of four different waste organic solid substances (WOSS) like sugarcane bagasse (SB), coconut shell (CS), aegle shell (AS), groundnut shell (GS), and the equal-volume mixture of all (Mix) were assessed in batch experiments. Subsequently, the best performing (Mix) substrate was evaluated in column mode of experiments under different experimental conditions and the optimized values were verified as bed depth of 30–40 cm, hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 24–26 h, and flow rate of . In optimum conditions, real domestic wastewater was successfully denitrified over a period of 2 months. The first-order reaction with in the range of 0.96–0.99 better described the denitrification process both in batch and column studies. Mix substrate further contributed to a speedy establishment of active denitrifying consortia consisting of Stenotrophomonas, Bacillus, and Ochrobactrum as the dominant genuses. The study validated the possible application of the selected Mix substrate as a potential substrate for biological denitrification process.
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Acknowledgments
The authors thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for reviewing the manuscript and for their expedient commentaries and the School of Infrastructure, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, India, for providing facilities to carry out the research work in the concerned area.
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Published In
Journal of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste
Volume 21 • Issue 3 • July 2017
Copyright
©2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 31, 2016
Accepted: Sep 20, 2016
Published online: Nov 22, 2016
Discussion open until: Apr 22, 2017
Published in print: Jul 1, 2017
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