Study of nitrogen removal performance in pilot-scale multi-stage vermi-biofilter: operating conditions impacts and nitrogen speciation transformation

Abstract

The present work investigates pollutant removal and the transformation of nitrogen from sewage wastewater using a pilot-scale multi-stage bio-vermifilter system. Over a study period of 48 weeks, the pollutant removal performance of the system was measured and the effects of hydraulic loading rate (HLR) and dry–wet ratio (D/W) were estimated. The relationship between oxygen transfer rate and load of oxygen necessity was calculated and analysed for system optimisation. The method for diluting the isotope δ15N-NO3− was applied to study nitrogen transfer. Moreover, statistical correlations were analysed to determine the crucial factors which influence nitrogen transfer efficiency. The system removes pollutants efficiently; specifically, the average removal efficiencies are 94.2 % for chemical oxygen demand (COD), 93.3 % for NH4+-N, and 58.2 % for total nitrogen (T-N). Lowering HLR and D/W can enhance nitrogen removal. Nitrogen speciation and transformation were examined under an optimised condition with an HLR of 0.36 m day−1 and a D/W of 3. The results of isotope δ15N-NO3− dilution showed that NO3−-N was mainly produced in trickling bio-filter and vermibio-filter (VBF) I. By contrast, NO3−-N was mainly reduced in VBF II. Under stable operating conditions and environmental factors, COD/T-N was verified as the crucial factor in nitrogen removal.