Progress in real-time control applied to biological nitrogen removal from wastewater. A short-review

Real-time control of biological nitrogen removal is a major issue to advance the performances and the efficiencies of the wastewater treatment, especially when coupled to the processes via-nitrite pathway. Over the last three decades many researchers focused on indirect parameters (namely pH, DO, ORP, conductivity) to control the conventional nitrification and denitrification, up to several full scale applications. On the other hand, the real-time control to achieve and operate the processes via-nitrite is under investigation over the last years. This short review analyzes and discusses the main real-time control strategies and their most common and successful applications in sequencing batch reactors. In conclusion, the knowledge concerning the conventional processes will be outlined together with the next developments for short-cut nitrogen removal.

► Real-time control is a key-issue to optimize the process of nitrogen bioremoval.
► The potential of indirect parameters for real-time control is investigated.
► Municipal and strong nitrogenous wastewaters are considered in this review.
► Indirect parameters are considered applied to conventional and short-cut processes.