Ammonia and nitrite oxidation rates in the inverse turbulent bed reactor determined by respirometric assay
2003
Sánchez, Omar | Bernet, Nicolas | Delgenès, Jean-Philippe
Respirometry, widely used to study kinetics of activated sludge, has been used to measure the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) in a nitrification biofilm process-the inverse turbulent bed reactor. The OUR has been measured at different initial concentrations of ammonia (10-100 mg N-NH4 + L-1) and nitrite (3-60 mg N-NO2-L-1), as well as those of ammonia-nitrite mixtures. The OUR was independent of the initial concentration of ammonia (zero order reaction), but decreased with time. This result can be explained by a decrease in biomass concentration within the reactor during the experiments. Between each experiment, the reactor was washed with a buffer solution at a very high flow rate, that resulted in the washing out of suspended biomass but not of fixed biomass. The loss of biomass was estimated at about 50%, indicating that half the active nitrifiers in the reactor were in the form of suspended biomass. The biomass concentration within the reactor was estimated using a mathematical model and the values obtained were in agreement with the hypothesis.
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