Search results for "Denitrification"
showing 10 items of 132 documents
Nitrous oxide emission in a University of Cape Town membrane bioreactor: The effect of carbon to nitrogen ratio
2017
Abstract The effect of the carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio in the influent on the nitrous oxide (N 2 O) emission from a University of Cape Town Membrane BioReactor pilot plant was investigated. The membrane was located in a separate tank to single out the production of N 2 O due to the biological processes from N 2 O stripping as a result of the extra aeration needed for the mitigation of membrane fouling. The experimental campaign was divided into two phases, each characterized by a different C/N ratio (namely, 10 and 5 mgCOD/mgTN, Phase I and Phase II, respectively). The decrease of the C/N ratio promoted the increase of N 2 O emissions in both gaseous and dissolved phases, mainly due to a…
An advanced control strategy for biological nutrient removal in continuous systems based on pH and ORP sensors
2012
[EN] A fuzzy logic-based control system that uses low-cost sensors for controlling and optimizing the biological nitrogen removal in continuous systems has been developed. The novelty of this control system is the use of several pH, ORP, and dissolved oxygen (DO) sensors instead of on-line nitrogen sensors/analyzers. The nitrogen control system was developed and implemented in a UCT pilot plant fed with wastewater from a full-scale plant. The developed nitrification controller allows the effluent ammonium concentration to be maintained below the effluent criteria discharge with the minimum energy consumption. The denitrification process controller allows the energy consumption derived from …
N2O and NO emissions by agricultural soils with low hydraulic potentials
2002
N2O and NO production were studied on five agricultural soils with low hydraulic potentials. All experiments were performed in a laboratory under standard incubation conditions to limit any intrinsic soil heterogeneity. The mechanisms involved in NO and N2O production was investigated using the inhibitory properties of acetylene on nitrification and N2O reduction. This work confirmed that N2O and NO could be produced by soils under aerobic conditions. Nitrification seemed to be the only process involved in NO production and the main process involved in N2O production by the five studied soils when the water content was low. Nevertheless, aerobic denitrification with N2O release was observed…
Inhibitory capacities of acetylene on nitrification in two agricultural soils
2000
Abstract Acetylene is currently used to distinguish between the relative contribution of nitrification and denitrification to soil emissions of the greenhouse gas, N 2 O. The basis of this method is that acetylene at low partial pressures inhibits nitrification without affecting N 2 O reduction. This paper reports experiments where low acetylene partial pressures were insufficient to totally inhibit nitrification in an hypercalcareous rendosol at water potentials higher than −3.5 MPa while they were always sufficient in a redoxic luvisol.
Soil environmental conditions rather than denitrifier abundance and diversity drive potential denitrification after changes in land uses
2010
Land-use practices aiming at increasing agro-ecosystem sustainability, e.g. no-till systems and use of temporary grasslands, have been developed in cropping areas, but their environmental benefits could be counterbalanced by increased N2O emissions produced, in particular during denitrification. Modelling denitrification in this context is thus of major importance. However, to what extent can changes in denitrification be predicted by representing the denitrifying community as a black box, i.e. without an adequate representation of the biological characteristics (abundance and composition) of this community, remains unclear. We analysed the effect of changes in land uses on denitrifiers for…
Spatial and temporal variation in denitrification and in the denitrifier community in a boreal lake
2011
We investigated the spatial and temporal variation in denitrification rates (isotopepairing technique, IPT) and in the denitrifier community (examination of gene nirK by denaturinggradient gel electrophoresis [DGGE] of microbial DNA) in the sediments of a boreal, clear-water, eutrophic lake using samples collected from shallow littoral, deep littoral and shallow profundal sediments during early summer, mid-summer, autumn and winter. The measured denitrification rates (44 to 613 μmol N m−2 d−1) are among the lowest ever reported from lacustrine sediments. Denitri fi cation rates varied both spatially and temporally, being highest in the profundal zone during midsummer and in the littoral zon…
Shortcut nitrification-denitrification by means of autochthonous halophilic biomass in an SBR treating fish-canning wastewater
2017
Abstract Autochthonous halophilic biomass was cultivated in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) aimed at analyzing the potential use of autochthonous halophilic activated sludge in treating saline industrial wastewater. Despite the high salt concentration (30 g NaCl L −1 ), biological oxygen demand (BOD) and total suspended solids (TSS), removal efficiencies were higher than 90%. More than 95% of the nitrogen was removed via a shortcut nitrification-denitrification process. Both the autotrophic and heterotrophic biomass samples exhibited high biological activity. The use of autochthonous halophilic biomass led to high-quality effluent and helped to manage the issues related to nitrogen removal…
Mathematical modelling of greenhouse gas emissions from membrane bioreactors: A comprehensive comparison of two mathematical models.
2018
Abstract This paper compares two mathematical models (Model I and Model II) to predict greenhouse gases emission from a University Cape Town (UCT) – membrane bioreactor (MBR) plant. Model I considers N 2 O production only during denitrification. Model II takes into account the ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) formation pathways for N 2 O. Both models were calibrated adopting real data. Model comparison was performed in terms of (i) sensitivity analysis (ii) best fit and (iii) model prediction uncertainty. On average 6% of factors of Model I and 9% of Model II resulted to be important. In terms of best fit, Model II had a better capability of reproducing the measured data. The average effici…
The effect of the solids and hydraulic retention time on moving bed membrane bioreactor performance
2018
Abstract The aim of the present paper was to investigate the effect of solids (SRT) and hydraulic (HRT) retention time on Integrated Fixed Film Activated Sludge (IFAS) University of Cape Town (UCT) membrane Bioreactor (MBR). In particular, three different pairs of SRT and HRT values were analysed, namely, Phase I 56 d/30 h, Phase II 31 d/15 h and Phase III 7 d/13 h. The short-term effect of these three SRT/HRT conditions was assessed by analysing several system performance indicators: organic carbon and biological nutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) removal, biomass respiratory activity, activated sludge filtration properties and membrane fouling. The results showed that the decrease of SRT/…
Modelling denitrification including the dynamics of denitrifiers and their progressive ability to reduce nitrous oxide: comparison with batch experim…
2005
Nitrous oxide contributes to the global greenhouse effect and affects the chemistry of O 3 in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. To define a relevant model for microbial NO 3 - and N 2 O reductions in soil and estimate the parameters involved, we propose a method combining measurements of anaerobic soil slurry and simulations of NO 3 - and N 2 O reductions, including non-enzymatic competition between NO 3 - and N 2 O as electron acceptors and the microbial dynamics of two denitrifier groups that are either able or unable to reduce N 2 O. Three models varying in the description of soil capability to reduce N 2 O through denitrification were assessed. The procedure was applied on a…