Real-time control strategy for nitrogen removal via nitrite in a SHARON reactor using pH and ORP sensors

This paper presents a real-time control strategy for nitrogen removal via nitrite in a continuous flow SHARON reactor using on-line available and industrially feasible sensors (pH and ORP). The developed control strategy optimizes the length of aerobic and anoxic phases as well as the external carbon source addition. This strategy, implemented in a laboratory-scale SHARON reactor fed with synthetic wastewater and real dewatering sludge supernatant, was able to cope with step variations in influent flow rate and ammonium concentration. The main advantages of this control strategy over the traditional operation mode with fixed carbon source dosification and fixed length cycle operation were: better effluent quality (ammonia concentration decreased from 12 to 2 mg NH4–N L−1 and nitrogen removal efficiency raised from 95% to 98%) as result of the shorter cycle length: 2.9 h versus 4.0 h, and savings in external carbon addition: 1332 mg COD d−1 versus 2100 mg COD d−1.

► A real-time control system is proposed to optimize a continuous flow SHARON reactor.
► pH and ORP on-line measurements are very useful tools for real-time process control.
► Nitrogen removal was optimized adjusting the length of aerobic and anoxic phases.
► Methanol addition in a SHARON reactor was optimized through a fuzzy logic controller.