Pressurized hydrogenotrophic denitrification reactor for small water systems

The feasibility of the proposed reactor was shown for two effluent concentrations of 10 and 1 mg NO3−-N/L. Hydrogen gas utilization efficiencies of 92.8% and 96.9% were measured for the two effluent concentrations, respectively. Reactor modeling predicted high denitrification rates above 4 g NO3−-N/(Lreactor·d) at reasonable operational conditions. Hydrogen utilization efficiency was improved up to almost 100% by combining the pressurized reactor with a following open-to-atmosphere polishing unit. Also, the potential of the reactor to remove ClO4− was shown.