Nitrification, denitrification and phosphorus removal in sequential batch reactors

Abstract A study was conducted to evaluate the biological nutrient removal performance of three full-scale sequential batch reactor (SBR) plants. The plants were designed to handle an average flow of 0.023, 0.025, 0.001 m 3 /s, respectively. These SBR systems were designed to achieve nitrification, denitrification and biological phosphorus removal. Influent and effluent samples were analyzed for CBOD 5 , TSS, ammonia nitrogen, nitrate nitrogen, total phosphorus, pH and temperature. The SBR performance data show that typical SBR designs can meet effluent CBOD 5 and TSS concentrations of less than 10 mg/l. With some additional design modifications, SBRs can successfully nitrify to limits of 1–2 mg/l NH 3 -N. They also appear to achieve phosphorus removal, if desired, without chemicals addition to less than 1.0 mg/l.