• Membrane Journal
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.31-36
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate the changes of sludge characteristics according to the changes of influent sewage flowrate in the advanced wastewater treatment processes including MBR, SBR, and $A_2O$. The ratio of the actual sewage flowrate to the design flowrate is decreased from 100% to 70, 40%, and 10%, and the specific denitrification rate and ammonia oxidation (nitrification) rate was measured. The specific nitrification rate of the sludge collected from the aeration tank of each process was measured at a similar value ($0.10gNH_4/gMLVSS/day$) in all three process under the condition of 100% of sewage flowrate. It has tended to decrease significantly as the sewage flowrate decreased from 70% to 40%. The specific denitrification rate was also decreased by ~50% as the sewage flowrate decreased. However, considering the total nitrogen concentration in the influent and the microbial concentration in the reactor, the changes in kinetic parameter did not affect overall nitrogen removal. Therefore, it can be concluded that stable nitrogen removal will be possible under low influent flowrate condition if the MLVSS concentration is kept high.