Abstract
To prevent surface and underground water pollution, wastewater treatment is essential. Four bench-scale activated sludge units (10 L operational volumes) were operated at 5, 10 and $20^{\circ}C$ for evaluation of treatment efficiencies with typical wastewater from swine housing. The units were set for a 24-hour cycle. As compared to the conventional process, high removal efficiencies for organic substances, nitrogen and phosphorus in swine wastewater were obtained simultaneously with an intermittent aeration process (lAP). The NOx-N produced during an aeration period was immediately reduced to nitrogen gas (e.g. $N_2$ or $N_2O$) in the subsequent non-aeration periods, and nitrification in aeration periods occurred smoothly. Under these conditions, phosphorus removal occurred with the release of phosphorus during the non-aeration periods followed by the excess uptake of phosphorus in the activated sludge during aeration periods. It was confirmed that the lAP had a better ability to remove pollutants under both low temperatures and high nitrogen loading conditions than the ordinary method did. In addition to that, the total emission of $N_2O$ from lAP was reduced to approximately 1/50 of the conventional process for the same loading. By adopting an adequate aeration programme for individual swine wastewater treatment, this system will provide a promising means for nitrogen and phosphorus control without pH control or addition of methanol.