A preliminary study on biological nitrogen removal from tannery wastewater using aerobic and anaerobic reactors

• Main Authors: Dy, Dianne Kristine C., Gaw, Jorich C., Uy, Lucky Dickinson T.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2005
• Subjects: Tanneries > Waste disposal; Chemical Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/11426
• Institution: De La Salle University

The aim of this research was to study the rate of degradation of nitrogen from a tannery wastewater using separate aerobic and anaerobic reactors. This will serve as a start-up experiment for the study of actual biological nitrogen removal process and design of a pilot plant for removal of nitrogen in tannery wastewater. Preliminary experiments using simulated wastewater subjected to continuous aerobic and anaerobic reactors with an effective volume of 4 liters and hydraulic retention time of 5 hours determined that the system reached steady-state after 12 and 14 days and a percentage reduction of 98.18% and 33.46% in chemical oxygen demand (COD), respectively. This was done through regular characterization of its COD. Subsequently, the rate of degradation of COD and nitrogen from diluted tannery wastewater was determined using batch aerobic and anaerobic reactors. The research showed that degradation of COD and ammonia nitrogen occurs best in aerobic environment. The rate of degradation of the aerobic reactors increased with increasing initial COD concentrations. The batch aerobic reactors reached steady state after a period of 4 days for the nitrogen degradation and 5 days for the COD degradation. The COD reduction percentages of the aerobic batch reactors obtained were about 71-97%.