• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.59-66
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• 2024

This study evaluated the performance of a membrane aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) for nitrogen removal from a high-strength ammonia nitrogen-containing wastewater. The experimental setup consisted of four compartments that are sequentially anaerobic and aerobic to achieve complete nitrogen removal. The last compartment of the reactor setup contained a membrane bioreactor (MBR) to reduce sludge production in the system and to obtain a better-quality effluent. Continuous experiment over a period of 47 days showed that MABR exhibited excellent NH₄⁺-N removal efficiency (99.5%) compared to the control setup without MABR (56.5%). The final effluent NH₄⁺-N concentration obtained in the MABR was 2.99±1.56 mg/L. In contrast to NH₄⁺-N removal, comparable TOC removal values in the MABR and the control reactor (99.2% and 99.3%, respectively) showed that air supply through MABR is much more critical for denitrification than for organic removal. Further study to understand the effect of air supply rate and holding pressure on NH₄⁺-N removal in MABR revealed that an increase in both these parameters positively impacted reactor performance. These parameters are related to oxygen supply to the biofilm formed over the membrane surface, which in turn influenced NH₄⁺-N removal in MABR. Among the two different strategies to control biofilm over the membrane surface, results showed that scouring for a duration of 10 min on a weekly basis, along with mixing air supply, could be an effective method.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.270-274
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• 2005

A reactor-scale hydrogen (H2) production via the water-gas shift reaction of carbon monoxide (CO) and water was studied using the purple nonsulfur bacterium, Rhodopseudomonas palustris P4. The experiment was conducted in a two-step process: an aerobic/chemoheterotrophic cell growth step and a subsequent anaerobic $H_2$ production step. Important parameters investigated included the agitation speed. inlet CO concentration and gas retention time. P4 showed a stable $H_2$ production capability with a maximum activity of 41 mmol $H_2$ g $cell^{-1}h^{-1}$ during the continuous reactor operation of 400 h. The maximal volumetric H2 production rate was estimated to be 41 mmol $H_2 L^{-1}h^{-1}$, which was about nine-fold and fifteen-fold higher than the rates reported for the photosynthetic bacteria Rhodospirillum rubrum and Rubrivivax gelatinosus, respectively. This is mainly attributed to the ability of P4 to grow to a high cell density with a high specific $H_2$ production activity. This study indicates that P4 has an outstanding potential for a continuous H2 production via the water-gas shift reaction once a proper bioreactor system that provides a high rate of gas-liquid mass transfer is developed.

• Clean Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.67-77
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• 2006

A simple dual sludge process, called as $KNR^{(R)}$ (Kwon's Nutrient Removal) system, was developed for small sewage treatment. It is a hybrid system that consists of an UMBR (Upflow multi-layer bioreactor) as anaerobic and anoxic reactor with suspended denitrifier and a post aerobic biofilm reactor, filled with pellet-like media, with attached nitrifier. To evaluate the stability and performance of this system for small sewage treatment, the pilot-scale $KNR^{(R)}$ plant with a treatment capacity of $50m^3/d$ was practically applied to the actual sewage treatment plant, which was under retrofit construction during pilot plant operation, with a capacity of $50m^3/d$ in a small rural community. The HRTs of a UMBR and a post aerobic biofilm reactor were about 4.7 h and 7.2 h, respectively. The temperature in the reactor varied from $18.1^{\circ}C$ to $28.1^{\circ}C$. The pilot plant showed stable performance even though the pilot plant had been the severe fluctuation of influent flow rate and BOD/N ratio. During a whole period of this study, average concentrations of $COD_{cr}$, $COD_{Mn}$, $BOD_5$, TN, and TP in the final effluent obtained from this system were 11.0 mg/L, 8.8 mg/L, 4.2 mg/L, 3.5 mg/L, 9.8 mg/L, and 0.87/0.17 mg/L (with/without poly aluminium chloride(PAC)), which corresponded to a removal efficiency of 95.3%, 87.6%, 96.3%, 96.5%, 68.2%, and 55.4/90.3%, respectively. Excess sludge production rates were $0.026kg-DS/m^3$-sewage and 0.220 kg-DS/kg-BOD lower 1.9 to 3.8 times than those in activated sludge based system such as $A_2O$ and Bardenpho.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.727-735
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• 2007

The use of water by cities is increasing owing to industrialization, the concentration of population, and the enhancement of the standard of living. Accordingly, the amount of waste water is also increasing, and the degree of pollution of the water system is rising. In order to solve this problem, it is necessary to remove organisms and suspended particles as well as the products of eutrophication such as nitrates and phosphates. This study developed a high-end treatment engineering solution with maximum efficiency and lower costs by researching and developing a advanced treatment engineering solution with the use of Biosorption. As a result, the study conducted a test with a $50m^3/day$ Pilot Scale Plant by developing treatment engineering so that only the secondary treatment satisfies the standard of water quality and which provided optimal treatment efficiency along with convenient maintenance and management. The removal of organisms, which has to be pursued first for realizing nitrification during the test period, was made in such a way that there would be no oxidation by microorganisms in the reactor while preparing oxygen as an inhibitor for the growth of microorganism in the course of moving toward the primary settling pond. The study introduced microorganisms in the endogeneous respiration stage to perform adhesion, absorption, and filtering by bringing them into contact with the inflowing water with the use of a sludge returning from the secondary settling pond. Also a test was conducted to determine how effective the microorganisms are as an inner source of carbon. The HRT(Hydraulic Retention Time) in the nitrification tank (aerobic tank) could be reduced to two hours or below, and the stable treatment efficiency of the process using the organisms absorbed in the NAR reactor as a source of carbon could be proven. Also, given that the anaerobic condition of the pre-treatment tank becomes basic in the area of phosphate discharge, it was found that there was excellent efficiency for the removal of phosphate when the pre-treatment tank induced the discharge of phosphate and the polishing reactor induced the uptake of phosphate. The removal efficiency was shown to be about 94.4% for $BOD_5$. 90.7% for $COD_{Cr}$ 84.3% for $COD_{Mn}$, 96.0% for SS, 77.3% for TN, and 96.0% for TP.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2012

This study was carried out to investigate change in influent concentration of domestic wastewater flowed from a newly constructed separate sewer system (SSS) and biological nutrients removal efficiency of a full scale Air-vent sequential batch reactor (SBR, $600m^3/d$). The average concentration of $BOD_5$, SS, T-N and T-P from SSS were 246.5 mg/L, 231.6 mg/L, 42.974 mg/L, 5.360 mg/L, respectively which corresponds to 2.2times, 1.2times, 1.8times and 2.1times higher than those from the conventional combined sewer system (CSS). The removal efficiency of $BOD_5$, SS, T-N, and T-P for the Air-vent SBR operated with influent from SSS averaged 99.1%, 99.0%, 91.2%, and 93.5%, respectively. Especially the respective nitrogen and phosphorus removal was 15% greater than that of the SBR operated with influent from CSS. Simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) was observed in an aerobic reactor(II) as a result of DO concentration gradient developed along the depth by the Air-vent system. In order to achieve T-N removal greater than 90%, the C/N ratio should be over 6.0 and the difference between $BOD_5$ loading and nitrogen loading rate be over 100 kg/day (0.130 kg $T-N/m^3{\cdot}d$). Even with high influent T-P concentration of 5.360 mg/L from SSS (compared with 2.465 mg/L from CSS) T-P removal achieved 93.5% which was 15.5% higher than that of the SBR with influent from CSS. This is probably due to high influent $BOD_5$ concentration from SSS that could provide soluble carbon source to release phosphorus at anaerobic condition. In order to achieve T-P removal greater than 90%, the difference between $BOD_5$ loading and phosphorus loading rate should be over 100 kg /day (0.130 kg $T-N/m^3{\cdot}d$).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Urban Environment
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.401-408
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• 2018

EQPS (Effluent Quality Prediction System, Dynamita, France) was applied to analyze the appropriateness of the design of a bioreactor in A sewage treatment plant. A sewage treatment plant was designed by setting the design concentration of the secondary clarifier effluent to total nitrogen and total phosphorus, 10 mg/L and 1.8 mg/L, respectively, in order to comply with the target water quality at the level of the hydrophilic water. The retention time of the 4-stage BNR reactor was 9.6 hours, which was 0.5 for the pre-anoxic tank, 1.0 for the anaerobic tank, 2.9 for the anoxic tank, and 5.2 hours for the aerobic tank. As a result of the modeling of the winter season, the retention time of the anaerobic tank was increased by 0.2 hours in order to satisfy the target water quality of the hydrophilic water level. The default coefficients of the one step nitrification denitrification model proposed by the software manufacturer were used to exclude distortion of the modeling results. Since the process modeling generally presents optimal conditions, the retention time of the 4-stage BNR should be increased to 9.8 hours considering the bioreactor margin. The accurate use of process modeling in the design stage of the sewage treatment plant is a way to ensure the stability of the treatment performance and efficiency after construction of the sewage treatment plant.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.109-113
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• 2009

This study was performed to investigate the characteristics of nutrient removal of municipal wastewater in membrane bioreactor system. Membrane bioreactor consists of four reactors such as the anaerobic, the stabilization, the anoxic and the submerged membrane aerobic reactor with two internal recycles. The hydraulic retention time (HRT), sludge retention time (SRT) and flux were 6.2 h, 34.1 days and 19.6 L/$m^2$/hr (LMH), respectively. The removal efficiency of $COD_{Cr}$, SS, TN and TP were 94.3%, 99.9%, 69.4%, and 74.6%, respectively. The estimated true biomass yield, specific denitrification rate (SDNR), specific nitrification rate (SNR), specific phosphorus release rate (SPRR) and specific phosphorus uptake rate (SPUR) were 0.653 kgVSS/kgBOD/d, 0.044 $mgNO_3$-N/mgVSS/d, 0.035 $mgNH_4$-N/mgVSS/d, 51.0 mgP/gVSS/d and 5.4 mgP/gVSS/d, respectively. The contents of nitrogen and phosphorus of biomass were 8.86% and 3.5% on an average.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.322-328
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• 2011

This study was performed to investigate the characteristics of nutrient removal of municipal wastewater in the membrane bioreactor system with the different types of membrane. Membrane bioreactor consists of three reactors such as two intermittent anaerobic and the submerged membrane aerobic reactor with flat sheet and hollow fiber membrane, respectively. The removal efficiencies of $COD_{cr}$, BOD, SS, TN and TP on the flat sheet membrane bioreactor were 94.3%, 99.0%, 99.9%, 70.3% and 63.1%, respectively. In addition, The removal efficiencies of $COD_{cr}$, BOD, SS, TN and TP on the hollow fiber membrane bioreactor were 94.0%, 99.3%, 99.9%, 69.9% and 66.9%, respectively. The estimated true biomass yield, specific denitrification rate (SDNR), specific nitrification rate (SNR) and phosphorus removal content on the flat sheet membrane bioreactor were $0.33kgVSS/kgBOD{\cdot}d$, $0.043mgNO_3-N/mgVSS{\cdot}d$, $0.031mgNH_4-N/mgVSS{\cdot}d$, and 0.144 kgP/d, respectively. In addition, the estimated true biomass yield, specific denitrification rate (SDNR), specific nitrification rate (SNR) and phosphorus removal content on the hollow fiber membrane bioreactor were $0.30kgVSS/kgBOD{\cdot}d$, $0.067mgNO_3-N/mgVSS{\cdot}d$, $0.028mgNH_4-N/mgVSS{\cdot}d$, and 0.121 kgP/d, respectively. There was little difference between the flat sheet and hollow fiber on the nutrient removal efficiencies except SNR and SDNR. These differences between them were caused by the air demand to prevent the membrane fouling. The flux and oxygen demand for air scouring were $19.0L/m^2/hr$ and $2.28m^3/min$ for the flat sheet membrane, and $20.7L/m^2/hr$ and $1.77m^3/min$ for the hollow fiber membrane on an average.