Removal of phosphorus from domestic wastewater using discontinuous aerobic anoxic reactor

• Main Author: Abdul Salim, Nur Atikah
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/78855/1/NurAtikahAbdulMFKA2015.pdf; http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/78855/; http://dms.library.utm.my:8080/vital/access/manager/Repository/vital:105896
• Institution: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

The discharge of excessive amounts of phosphorus (P) from domestic wastewater treatment plant is of interest in this study because the abnormally high levels of P as one of the nutrient elements can lead to eutrophication for the receiving waters. Although many methods have been proposed for the removal of P matter from industrial and municipal wastewater, such as Phoredox, A2OTM and UCT-type, the use of alternating aerobic-anoxic (AAA) system must be verified. This study proposes the use of Discontinuous Aerobic-Anoxic Reactor (DAAR) to remove P from domestic wastewater at Taman Impian Emas, Skudai, Johor using the nitrification and denitrification type of activated sludge. The objectives of this study are: (1) to evaluate the efficiency of P removal from domestic wastewater by a single reactor under aerobic digestion (AD) condition, and (2) to assess the performance of AAA process of using the different cycles of nitrification-denitrification to remove P from domestic wastewater. The average efficiency of AD to remove P from domestic wastewater was 48%. The efficiencies of AAA system to remove P from domestic wastewater, on the other hand, were verified as follows: (1) at 6-h AD and 6-h anoxic time (AT), the efficiency was 0%, indicating that there was no removal of P during the AAA process, (2) at 5-h AD and 5-h AT, the average efficiency was 48%, (3) at 4-h AD and 4-h AT, the average efficiency was 82%, (4) at 3-h AD and 3-h AT, the average efficiency was 91%, and (5) at 2-h AD and 2-h AT, the average efficiency was 88%. Therefore, the AAA system has exhibited a better performance compared to AD. The results of the study also show that the best condition of AAA system had a period of 3-h AD and 3-h AT and reached 91% efficiency with an average treated effluent concentration of less than 1.0 mg P/L. High performance of the AAA process has been proven by using domestic wastewater from Taman Impian Emas, Skudai, Johor, giving new insights into environmental engineering practices.