Nitrogen removal from sludge dewatering effluent through anaerobic ammonia oxidation process

Anaerobic ammonia oxidation(Anammox) process is a novel and promising wastewater nitrogen removal process. The feasibility of transition of Anammox from denitrification and the performance of lab-scale Anammox biofilm reactor were investigated with sludge dewatering effluent. The results showed that Anammox process could be successfully started up after cultivation of denitrification biofilm and using it as inoculum. The transition of Anammox from denitrification was accomplished within 85 d. Anammox process was found suitable to remove ammonia from sludge dewatering effluent. The effluent ammonia concentration was detected to be 23.11 mgN/L at HRT of 28 h when influent ammonia concentration was fed 245 mgN/L, which was less than that for the national discharge standard II (25 mgN/L) of China. Volumetric total nitrogen loading rate was up to 584.99 mg TN/(L x d) at HRT of 17 h, while influent concentrations were kept 243.25 mg NH4(+) -N/L and 288.31 mg NO2(-) -N/L.