Nitrogen removal from piggery waste using the combined SHARON and ANAMMOX process

Nitrogen removal in piggery waste was investigated with the combined SHARON-ANAMMOX process. The piggery waste was characterized as strong nitrogenous wastewater with very low C/N ratio. For the preceding SHARON reactor, ammonium nitrogen loading and conversion rates were 0.97 kg NH4-N/m3 reactor/day and 0.73 kg NH4-N/m3 reactor/day, respectively. Alkalinity consumption for ammonium conversion was 8.5 gr bicarbonate utilized per gram ammonium nitrogen converted to NO2-N or NO3-N at steady-states operation. The successive ANAMMOX reactor was fed with the effluent from SHARON reactor. Nitrogen loading and conversion rates were 1.36 kg soluble N/m3 reactor/day and 0.72 kg soluble N/m3 reactor/day, respectively. The average NO2-N/NH4-N removal ratio by ANAMMOX reaction was 2.13. It has been observed that Candidatus "Kuenenia stuttgartiensis" were dominated in the ANAMMOX reactor based on FISH analysis.