CANON process for nitrogen removal from effluents of municipal sewage treatment plants

Abstract

The feasibility and performance of nitrogen removal from municipal sewage were investigated through the completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite (CANON) process in a continuous reactor. CANON process was successfully started up with the transformation of nitrogen into gas by mass-balance analysis. For the synthetic wastewater (up to 480 mg NH₄ ⁺-N/(L · d)), removal rates of the ammonia nitrogen and total nitrogen (TN) were about 80% and 55%, respectively, at 1.25 h hydraulic retention time (HRT). For the secondary effluent of municipal sewage, the effluent concentrations of NH₄ ⁺-N and TN were below 5 mg/L and 9 mg/L, respectively. It is in accordance with the water quality standard for scenic environment with the reuse of urban recycling water (GB/T 18921-2002).

Keywords

biodegradation / CANON / optimisation / municipal sewage

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