Fixed Biofilm Procedure for Evaluation of Readily Biodegradable Substrate in Wastewater

Abstract

In the design and modelling of biological denitrification processes for wastewater treatment, the characterisation of the organic matter is one of the key factors. This work proposes the adaptation of the NUR (nitrogen uptake rate) method to fixed biofilm reactors. The objective is to establish a practical method, based on anoxic respiration, to determine the rapidly biodegradable organic matter available for denitrification in fixed biofilm processes through the measurement of an easily measurable parameter (nitrate). Two procedures are proposed: a batch procedure and a continuous flow procedure. The latter can be run automatically and is more adapted to in situ measurement of the production of rapidly biodegradable carbon source. The results obtained demonstrate the viability of the methods and underline the significance of the yield coefficient to the precision of the results.

Keywords:

• Biodegradability
• biofilters
• characterisation of wastewater
• denitrification
• organic matter