Study of a combined heterotrophic and sulfur autotrophic denitrification technology for removal of nitrate in water

A combined two-step process of heterotrophic denitrification in a fluidized reactor and sulfur autotrophic denitrification processes (CHSAD) was developed for the removal of nitrate in drinking water. In this process, the advantage of high efficiency of heterotrophic denitrification with non-excessive methanol and the advantage of non-pollution of sulfur autotriphic denitrification were integrated in this CHSAD process. And, this CHSAD process had the capacity of pH balance and could control the concentration of SO42− in effluent by adjusting the operation condition. When the influent nitrate was 30 mg NO3−-N/L, the reactor could be operated efficiently at the hydraulic retention time (HRT) ranging from 20 to 40 min with C:N ratio (mg CH3OH:mg NO3−-N) of 2.0 (methanol as carbon source). The nitrate removal was nearly 100% and there was no accumulated nitrite or residual methanol in the effluent. The effluent pH was about 7.5 and the sulfate concentration was lower than 130 mg/L. The maximum volume-loading rate of the reactor was 2.16 kg NO3−-N/(m3 d). The biomass and scanning electron microscopy graphs of biofilm were also analyzed.