Technical Papers
Oct 31, 2022

Intricacies of Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal in Full-Scale Sequencing Batch Reactors Based on Wastewater Treatment Plants of India

Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 149, Issue 1

Abstract

Enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) is a growing, succeeding, and recognized process for removing phosphorus biologically from wastewater. Four sequencing batch reactor (SBR) plants with capacities of 120, 87.5, 50, and 3 million L per day (MLD) from different Indian locations were analyzed for EBPR. The 120 MLD Varanasi, 87.5 MLD Mumbai, and 50 MLD Gurgaon plants were working effectively for EBPR; >75% total phosphorus (TP) removal was observed at milligrams of readily biodegradable chemical oxygen demand (rbCOD) per milligram TPremoved of 12.0, 14.4, and 18.6, respectively; however, the 3 MLD Roorkee SBR was working mainly as adequate nitrogen removing technology at milligrams rbCOD/mg TPremoved<8. The linear increasing trend was observed between rbCOD/COD (%) and EBPR (%) at R2=0.99 (p<0.05 and r=0.99) in plants. Optical microscopic examinations were performed to identify the intracellular polymers [poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) and polyphosphates] in the EBPR sludge. This study focuses on optimizing the SBR designs (selector and non-selector based) for EBPR and identifying the relationships between wastewater characteristics and phosphorus removal governed by typical microbial functions with the perspective of optimizing decentralized treatment systems of India.

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Data Availability Statement

All data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the published article.

Acknowledgments

The first author is grateful to the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee for providing an Ministry of Human Resources and Development (MHRD) assistantship during her Ph.D. study.

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Go to Journal of Environmental Engineering
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 149Issue 1January 2023

History

Received: May 7, 2022
Accepted: Jul 25, 2022
Published online: Oct 31, 2022
Published in print: Jan 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Mar 31, 2023

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Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247667, India (corresponding author). ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5005-1944. Email: [email protected]
Absar Ahmad Kazmi [email protected]
Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, Uttarakhand 247667, India. Email: [email protected]

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