Pergamon Wat Sci Tech. Vol. 36, No. 12, pp. 189-197, 1997. {© 1997 1AWO, Pubished by Elsevier Science Lid Printed in Great Britain, (0273-1223197 $1700 + 000 PIL: S0273-1223(97)00739-7 A NOVEL AND COST-EFFECTIVE SEWAGE TREATMENT SYSTEM CONSISTING OF UASB PRE-TREATMENT AND AEROBIC POST-TREATMENT UNITS FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Tzarul Machdar*, Hideki Harada*, Akiyoshi Ohashi*, Yuji Sekiguchi*, Hiroyuki Okui** and Kyoko Ueki** + Deparamens Environmental Systems Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, Nagaoka 940-21, Japan ** Cid Engineering Technology Depariment, Tokyu Construction Co. Lid, 1-16-14 Shibuya, Tokyo 150, Japan ABSTRACT ‘A novel sewage treatment system was proposed, which consists of a UASB anaerobic pre~ treatment unit and the following DHS (downflow hanging sponge-cubes) aerobic post- treatment unit, as a low-cost and easy-maintenance process for developing countries. Over six months experiment by feeding sewage our proposed system achieved 94% of total-COD removal, 81% of soluble-COD removal, and nearly perfect SS removal and total-BOD removal at the overall HRT of 8.3 br (7 hr in UASB and 1.3 hr in DHS unit). Moreover, the DHS reactor was capable of performing high (73-78%) nitrification. Our whole system requires neither external aeration input nor withdrawal of excess sludge. © 1997 JAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Lid KEYWORDS UASB reactor, anaerobic treatment, aerobic post-treatment, sewage treatment, appropriate technology, DHS reactor, nitrification, developing countries \TRODUCTION In most of developing countries, due to the shortage of basic sewage treatment facilities, heavy aquatic pollution in urban area is one of the most acute environmental issues. Because of the limited financial resources, there is a definite need for a cost-effective appropriate technology for sewage treatment system. Upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) technology may be mostly attractive option for sewage treatment for developing countries, because it can be used at small or large scale, in technically simple, lower cost (no need aeration), yield less excess sludge and energy is produced instead of consumed. 189190 1. MACHDAR era However, anaerobic processes possess some weak points. Effluent quality of anaerobic process is usually not comparable with that from activated sludge process. Anaerobic process sometimes requires post- treatment for removals of residual organics and reduced forms of sulfur compounds, and also ineffective for nutrients removal. So far several type of reactors have been proposed as a post-treatment unit for polish-up of anaerobic effluent (Tilche A, et al., 1996; G. Garuti, ef al., 1992) by either employing suspended-growth or attached- growth systems (Collivigneralli, et al., 1990). Attached-growth processes seem to be more stable, because higher SRT can be attained which is favorable for nitrification and denitrification. Some important factors required for an ideal attached-growth system is no need of backwashing or free from clogging, inexpensive packing materials, low energy consumption, easy to install and maintenance, and so forth. In order to fulfill these requirements we originally proposed a novel aerobic post-treatment process named Downflow Hanging Sponge-cubes (DHS) reactor. The proposed DHS process has an unique design : each module is a 2-3 m string of vertically diagonally-connected sponge cubes (1-2 em size polyurethane form cubes), Influent wastewater is permeating by gravity into sponge-cube inside, and then transporting vertically to the adjacent cube. Hence, the most important feature of DHS reactor is no requirement of extemal intended aeration. ‘The aim of this study is to investigate the feasibility of our proposed system, i., UASB pre-treatment unit followed by DHS post-treatment unit, for sewage treatment. The proposed system was installed at a ‘municipal sewage treatment plant site, and operated by receiving actual sewage under practical conditions. This paper describes the process performance of the whole combined system, with an emphasis on nitrification and denitrification behaviors of DHS post-treatment unit. MATERIALS AND METHODS Experimental setup ‘The proposed system was installed at a municipal sewage treatment plant site in Nagaoka City, Japan. The UASB reactor has 155-liter working volume, consisting of a 120-liter column portion and a 35-liter gas/solid separator (GSS). The GSS portion was modified by equipping with inclined-plates type settler to enhance separation of sludge from evolved biogas and effluent stream (H. Harada ef al., 1996: L. K. ‘Agrawal and H. Harada, 1997). A part of the effluent stream from the UASB reactor was further forwarded for polish-up to the following aerobic DHS post-treatment unit. To accumulate operational know-how, three DHS units (R-I through R-3) were in parallel operated at different modes. Each DHS unit was 2 m in vertical length, composed of 90 sponge cubes (each 1.5 x 1.5 x 1.5 cm) connected diagonally in series with cach other. The DHS R-I unit was operated as an one-through reactor at a 2.1 ml/min flow rate, which corresponds to a nominal HRT of 1.3 hr. The DHS R-2 unit received the same feeding rate as R-1, but the effluent from R-2 unit was recycled to the top of R-2 itself at 1:1 ratio. The DHS R-3 unit had recirculation, just as R-2 unit did, and the upper-half of R-3 total height was kept in anoxic condition to enhance denitrification. The schematic of the UASB and the DHS units are shown in Fig. 1. The UASB pre- treatment unit was inoculated with digested sewage sludge, and the DHS post-treatment unit was inoculated by soaking into activated sludge mixed liquor for one day prior to start-up. Both UASB and DHS units ‘were maintained at 25°C in order to simulate annual average ambient temperature in most of developing countries in sub-tropical regions. Profiles tests for determination of in situ nitrification and denitrification rates In situ reaction rates of the respective DHS units, with respect to ammonia oxidation rate, nitrite oxidation rate and denitrification rate, were determined from nitrogen species profiles along reactor height by feeding defined synthetic wastewaters. Feed solutions containing 25, 60 and 100 mg NH4-N/ were employed for determination of ammonia oxidation rate. Nitrite solutions containing 40, 50 and 60 mg NOz-N/ were used for estimation of nitrite oxidation rate.‘Sewage treatment for developing countries 191 For the determination of denitrification rate, solutions containing 30, 50, or 70 mg NOs-N/l plus 250 mg/l of glucose were fed to the respective DHS units. Nutrients and phosphate buffer were supplemented according to Ohashi er al., (1995). Al profile tests were conducted in one-through mode at a feeding rate of 6.3 ‘l/min (three times as large as the nominal flow rate). Characteristics of DHS reactor Height 200 em Number of sponge :90 Sponge size 15x1.Sx1 Sem Void volume 0244 ler Void ratio 0.803 Specific surface area: 40S m2/m3 1. Sewage Tank 5.Gas Meter 9. Sampling Pons 2. Flow Meter 6. Scum-Mixing Motor 10, Water Jacket 3.Gas-Solid Separator 7. Mixing Motor 11. Sponge-cube 4. Gas Trap 8. Screen(Imm mesh) 12. Anoxic coluron Fig. 1. Experimental Setup installed at a sewage treatment site, schematic and photograph RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Performance of UASB and DHS reactor Process performance of the UASB pre-treatment unit during a period of 170 day continuous operation is given in Fig. 2. The average total-COD and soluble-COD of the sewage (influent to UASB unit) were approximately 672 mg/l (SD+163 mg/l) and 201 mg/l (SD+67 mg/l), respectively. Particulate COD constitutes more than two third of the total influent strength. The UASB unit produced the effluent having, total-COD of 144 mg/l (SD+54 mg/l) and soluble-COD of 67 mg/l (SD+18 mg/l), giving the total-COD removal of 80% (SD+10%) and the soluble-COD removal of 65% (SD£10%) at 7 hr HRT (Fig. 2). The UASB unit also functioned efficiently as a pre-treatment for reduction of particulate COD, accomplishing 60% SS removal. Process performance of the three DHS posttreatment units was summarized in Table 1, along with the result of UASB pre-treatment unit. No substantial difference in COD removal, SS removal and ammonia oxidation was observed among these three DHS units. Therefore, the performance results for only DHS R- 2 (with recirculation) were presented in Fig. 2 with regard to organic removal, and in Fig, 3 with regard to nitrification. Based on 170 day continuous operation the total-COD of the final effluent from R-2 post- treatment unit was 42 mg/l (SD+I7 mg/l). Accordingly, the total-COD removal in the DHS unit was always kept around 70% (SD:£14%) despite of receiving fluctuating effluent from the preceding UASB unit. It is noteworthy that the whole system (UASB unit plus DHS unit) achieved consistently a very satisfactory performance on the total-COD removal of 94% (based on total-COD of sewage versus total-COD of the final12 LMACHDAR er al effluent from DHS unit) at the overall HRT of 8.3 hr. Furthermore, all three DHS units demonstrated superior capabi in capturing particulate matters, producing almost SS-free effluent. As a consequence, DHS unit accomplished nearly perfect BOD and SS removals. COD removal (%) —o— by VASB 2 by DHS Oo by whole system 0 30 6 90 120 150 180 Time (day) Fig. 2. Time course of COD removals by UASB pre-treatment unit solely, by DHS post-treatment unit solely (in case of R-2 unit), and by the whole system (UASB plus DHS units) ‘Table 1. Summarized data of UASB, DHS, and total system TASB Pre-weatnent TEfioen fom DHS ume Toa Parameter ma R2 RS System Taaest —[_Effioent | (one-through | recirculation)| (anoxic and reciculaon ‘COBY imam 2 cis] 144 6) 40 ci) | 42 2) CODs (mg) roa} 67 (18) | 36 116) | 39 16) 16) ODI (mg) 29 io] 68.3] 2 a | 2 0 2 a) ODS (mg) 95 (6o)| 23.115) Tejeda (men) | 52 10)| $6)| 6 @ | Be 2 @ S-Kjeldahl (mga) | 20 @)| 42 NHeN(men) | 31 | 209) | 6 s © NO2-N (mgN) ND Np | 064) on @) NO3-N (mgNA) ND xp | 390 ® 4 SS men) 235-16 | 75.69)| ND ND VSS (mg) 216) 43.07 | _ ND ND oO (gf) 0706)| 0 718006 | 74906) 74908) pil o3as_| 6474 | 38 38 38 COB remaval 80 (10) Tay] — 701d) “iy 9 (CODs removal (%) 65 (10) 44as) | 467) 4615) 8 'BODI removal (%) % ” * 7 99 BODs removal (%) 6 NHEN removal (2) 788) | 73417) 8 $8 removal (&) o 100 100 100, (©) dace ony ul one week ier arty Nitrogen removal All the three DHS units exhibited not only excellent organic removals but also considerably high nitrification efficiency. Independent of operational mode, three DHS units showed similar NH-N oxidation rates: 78% (SD+18%) for R-I unit (one-through), 73% (SD+17) for R-2 unit (recirculation) and 74% (SD+13) for R-3 unit (anoxic plus recirculation). Fig. 3 shows, as a representative example, the time course of nitrogen species in the influent and final effluent of DHS R-2 unit. Even though NH.-N of the influent to the DHS (the effluent from UASB) considerably fluctuated from 10 to 60 mg NA (32 SD415 mg NHs-N/, Table 1), the DHS R-2 unit performed stable nitrification, yielding 30 (SD+8) mg NO3-N/ throughout the experiment duration (Fig. 3-2).‘Sewage treatment for developing countries 193 i : g g E ay g i : ie ‘ io 5 Ea > 6 9% 120 150 180 30 «120150180 Time (day) ‘Time (day) e+ NHgNInt, A NOpN eff —O— NHyNeff. — —e— NOs eff Fig. 3. Time course of (a) nitrogen species; (b) ammonia oxidation in DHS R-2 (recirculation) post-treatment unit Fig. 4 shows the relationship between NHg-N oxidized versus the COD/NH4-N ratio of the influent for three DHS units. The presence of organic matters in the influent gave adverse effect on nitrification efficiency. This may be partially attributable to that nitrfiers compete for dissolved oxygen against organic oxidizers. However, a finding that DO level of the effluent from the three DHS reactors were all the time kept at 7.2 - 7.5 mg DOA (SD#0.6 mg DO) does not account for the above-mentioned inference. 20; 2 One trough o Recirculation z= of 8 © Anoxic and eireuaion 2 ZF w # ipl Whos: tt ae @ .%4 o 5 10 18 2 (35 CODA inf. rato Fig. 4. Relationship between COD/N ratio in influent and NH4-N removed Sludge retainment Relatively high performance of nitrification in all three DHS reactors suggests that this reactor configuration is advantageous for maintaining a very long SRT. It should be noted that neither intended sludge withdrawal nor sludge sampling was made over the whole experimental duration. Moreover, all three DHS units produced almost SS-free (below quantifiable) effluent, accomplishing nearly 100% particulate-COD removals. In other words, there was no substantial SS output from the DHS units for a period of 170 days. Consequently, the DHS reactors allowed a very long SRT, which enhanced proliferation of slow-growing nitrifiers, Fig. 5 presents the relationships between cumulative NH¢-N reduction versus cumulative NO3-N generation ‘over 170 days for all the three DHS units. The results show that in both recirculation systems (DHS R-2 and R-3 units) the amounts of NO3-N generated exceeded that of NH,-N eliminated194 IL MACHDAR eral On the other hand, in DHS R-1 unit the cumulative NH4-N agreed well with that of NO3-N. A likely interpretation for this disagreement is that the contribution of simultaneous ammonia production through cell autolysis cannot be disregarded, especially in the recirculation systems. Particulate organic matters entrapped/accumulated onto sponge-cubes and into cube-insides were gradually being decomposed and providing denitrfiers with available carbons as electron donor. 030 90130 150 1800 30” 6099 120 150 1800 3060 90 130 150 180 Time (days) Fig. 5. Time course of cumulative NH,-N removed and NO3-N generated in DHS Post-ireatment units. (2) R-I (one-through); (b) R-2 (recirculation); (c) R-3 (anoxic and recirculation) Nitrogen profiles in DHS reactors Nitrogen species profiles along each DHS reactor height were examined four times over six months. Fig. 6 presents, as an example, nitrogen profiles for three DHS units obtained one month later since the start-up. ‘Ammonia oxidation rates based on the whole DHS reactor height were summarized somewhere in Fig. 7-d. Inall three DHS units, rapid oxidation of ammonia nitrogen occurred until the upper one-fourth of the total DHS height. Accumulation of intermediate product of nitrite was observed at the upper portion in only DHS. R-L unit (one-through) at the early stage, but no build-up of nitrite any more later than two months (profiles not shown). Gujer and Boller (1984) found that residual nitrite in the effluent from a trickling filter was caused by oxygen deficiency. The final effluent from all the DHS units contained no nitrite at all later than lone week from the start-up (Fig. 3). Some extent of denitrification was also observed at the lower portion of all three DHS units. A sharp decline in pH from the top (7.2) o the bottom (4.8-5.0) was associated with nitrification, S Sponge Height (cm) 5 130] 200. 0 10 2 3% 4 500 10 2 30°40 30 6° 0 “29 30" 40 30 [Nitrogen cone. (mg NA) Nitrogen cone. (mg NA) Nitrogen conc, (mg NA) 74 5 67 83 #5 6783 4 5 67 8 va pH pH Fig. 6. Profiles of nitrogen species and pH profiles along DHS reactor height. (a) R-I (one-through); (b) R-2 (recirculation); and (c) R-3 (anoxic and recirculation) (—O-NHy-N —o—NOy-N —A—NOz-N —2— pH) ‘Ac at inlet; B: after combined with the recirculationSewage treatment for developing countries 195 Activities of Nitrification and Denitrification In situ nitrification rate and denitrification rate were determined for each DHS reactor by feeding defined synthetic wastewaters. The results is presented in Fig. 7, along with in situ rates when sewage was fed. Profile tests using synthetic wastewaters were conducted in order that substrate and pH should not become rate limiting factors. Therefore, the in situ rates determined herewith can be regarded as potentials or activities of the respective DHS units. Comparison of Fig. 7-a with Fig. 7-d signifies that regarding ammonia oxidation all three DHS units possessed four to six times higher potential than actual in situ rate (sewage-fed rate). No substantial difference in ammonia oxidation activity and in nitrite oxidation activity ‘was observed among three DHS reactors. In all three DHS units nitrite oxidation activities were comparable to or slightly higher than ammonia oxidation activities, accounting for the observation that nitrite was not present in the effluents. An interesting finding is DHS reactors exhibited relatively high denitrification activity, mearly a half as large as ammonia oxidation activity (in comparison at 102 mgN/ in Fig. 7-a versus at 73 mgN/ in Fig. 7-c). Among three DHS units, R-3 unit (anoxic plus recirculation) showed the highest and R-1 unit (one-through) gave the lowest denitrification activity. 2-5 [(a) synthetic wastewater as a [(b) synthetic wastewater as. tea feed 5 2d = 524 7 a3 a3 f g Bo us| Ba '5 ly’ % & ee q k 3 22 22 ol kW IRA |i a 2264 1h |b = os ost| AA | 0! ool 43 5 ry NHN inftuen (mg 82) NOp-N influent (mg NA) as 2s (@) sync was s a g B20 ft § 20 ae ae g 25 15) sels. og z . 22 fete € EG & Z 10) wore 2 F 8 ae Hey eee g bE Ost ry | ost So (fH a 00°" 29 50° 73 0057 34517 267 NOs. influent (ng NA) NH-N infunt (ng NA) Fig. 7. In situ nitrogen transformation rates of DHS units determined from profile tests using synthetic wastewater and sewage Legend: CAR-I (one-through) ( R-2 (recirculation) @ R-3 (anoxic and recirculation) Concurrent presence of nitrfiers and denitrifiers in the DHS reactors can be likely accounted for by localized distribution of the respective groups by depth toward sponge-cube inside and by vertical distance from the inlet. Fig. 8 shows the biomass distribution along DHS reactor height. At the upper portion of DHS units very thick and dense biofilm was accumulated onto the sponge-surfaces, whereas at the lower portion much Jess amount of biomass was present. SEM observation clearly demonstrated two distinctive manners of, biomass retainment within DHS sponge-cubes. Fig. 9-a presents the outer surface of biofilm accumulated ‘onto cube surface, displaying individual cells were embedded into dense polymer-like matrix. A slightly inner distance from the surface of this type of thick biofilm would readily become DO depleted zone, possibly providing denitrifiers with favorable habitat. On the contrary, inside sponge-cube structure scarce biomass was present as deposited onto interstices of sponge material. It can be deduced that nitrification is preferably taking place in this region (interior space of sponge-cubes), supposedly due to the availability of dissolved oxygen. Wastewater migration through permeation from the anterior cube to the posterior cube is likely acting as supply of sufficient DO.LMACHDAR etal Fig. 8. Photographs of entrapped/accumulated biomass onto the sponge-cubes in DHS R- unit. (a) at the upper portion ; (©) at the lower portion Fig. 9. SEM observations of biomass retainment in the DHS reactors. (a) thick biomass attached onto the sponge-cube surface: (b) deposit biomass at the interstices of sponge-cube inside CONCLUSIONS A novel and cost-effective sewage treatment system was proposed by combining a UASB anaerobic pre- treatment unit and an unique DHS aerobic post-treatment unit. The feasibility of our proposed system was ‘evaluated by conducting six months continuous flow experiment using actual sewage as a feed. 1 Our proposed system verified excellent organic removal performance: achieving 94% of total-COD removal, 81% of soluble COD removal, and nearly perfect SS and total-BOD removals at the overall HRT of 8.3 hr (7 hr in UASB and 1.3 hr in DHS unit). 2 The DHS post-treatment units functioned satisfactorily not only for removals of residual organics from a UASB pre-treatment unit, but also for nitrogen removal. The DHS units performed 73 - 78% nitrification, and also some extent of denitrification. The DHS reactors possess distinguished advantages: neither requirement of external aeration input nor excess sludge production.‘Sewage treatment for developing counties 197 REFERENCES Collivignarelli, C., Urbini, G., Fameti, A., Bassetti, A., and Barbaresi, U. (1990). Anaerobic aerobic treatment of municipal wastewaters with full-scale upflow anaerobic sludge blanket and attached biofilm reactors. Wat. Sci. Tech., 22 (1/2), 475-482. Garuti, G., Dohanyos, M., and Tilche, A. (1992). Anaerobic-aerobie combined process for the treatment of sewage with nutrient removal: The Ananox® Process. Wat. Sci-Tech., 25 (7), 383-394. Gujer, W. and Boller, M. (1984). Operating experience with plastic media tertiary trickling filters for nitvification, Wat. Sci.Tech., 16 (Vienna), 201-213. Hideki Harada, Shigeki Uemura, Ann-Cheng Chen, and Jayabalasingham Jayadevan (1996). Anaerobic treatment of a recalcitrant distillery wastewater by a thermophilic UASB reactor.Bioresource Technology, 55 (1996), 215-21 Lalit. K. Agrawal, Hideki Harada and Hiroyuki Okui (1997). Treatment of dilute wastewater in a UASB reactor at a moderate temperature: Performance Aspects, Journal of Fermentation and Bioengineering, 83 (2), 179-184. Ohashi, A., et al. (1995). Influence of substrate C/N ratio on the structure of multi-species biofilm consisting of nitrfiers and heterotrophs. Wat, Sci.Tech., 32 (8), 75-84. Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater. (1992). 18th Ed., American Public Health Association, Washington, D.C. Tilche, A., Bortone, G., Garuti, G., and Malaspina, F. (1996). Post-treatments of anaerobic effluents. ‘Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, 69, 47-59.