Ammonium nitrogen removal characteristics of zeolite media in a Biological Aerated Filter (BAF) for the treatment of textile wastewater

The main objective of this study is to evaluate ammonium nitrogen removal characteristics of zeolite media in Biological Aerated Filter (BAF) process for treatment of textile wastewater. Several biofilters were conducted to compare the performance of natural zeolite with sand and granular activated carbon (GAC) as packing media. The removal of NH4+-N on the BAF reactor packed with natural zeolite media was more efficient than that with sand and GAC. After biofilm was well developed on the surface of zeolite media, the removal of NH4+-N by ion exchange, nitrification, and biological synthesis was estimated as 35.1%, 40.2%, and 22.3%, respectively. The natural zeolite pretreated with heat and HCl solution showed higher ammonium removal efficiency than that with NaOH solution. No significant difference on ammonium adsorption capacity was observed when nature zeolite was neither pretreated by heat nor hydrochloric acid solution. This study shows that natural zeolites has the feasibility to be chosen as a useful media in BAF process for the treatment of textile wastewater.