Development of High Efficiency Partial Nitrification as a First Step of Nitrite Shunt Process using Ammonium-Oxidizing Bacteria (AOB)

Shortcut biological nitrogen removal is a non-conventional way of removing nitrogen from wastewater using two processes either nitrite shunt or deammonification. In this research, a complete partial nitrification as a first step of the Nitrite Shunt process has been developed under a high nitrogen loading rate (NLR) using a novel strategy to control the DO depending on using a constant air flow rate with a variable mixing speed using a Sequential Batch Reactor (SBR). The SBR has been successfully running at NLR of 1.2 kg/ (m3.d) maintaining an ammonia removal efficiency (ARE) of 98.6 ± 2.8% with a nitrite accumulation rate (NAR) of 93.0 ± 0.7%, which is 2 times higher than the previous NLR reported in the literature. Moreover, a dynamic and pseudo-state model of partial nitrification has been developed and calibrated using BioWin software for long-term dynamic behavior of the lab-scale SBR at different nitrogen loading rates (NLR).