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UC Water Resources Center Technical Completion Report W-837

Download the Paper (1.0 MB, PDF file) - August 1, 1996 Tell a colleague about it. Printing Tips: Select 'print as image' in the Acrobat print dialog if you have trouble printing.

ABSTRACT:

Microbial denitrification, a frequently used and relatively inexpensive method of removing nitrate from wastewater, has been applied to the treatment of potable water supplies, on a limited scale, using packed bed reactors. However, two significant drawbacks exist in transferring wastewater denitrification technology to the treatment of domestic water supplies: (1) the water is intimately mixed with microbial cultures and (2) organic compounds must be supplied as an energy source to drive the denitrification reactions and residual organics can be a water quality problem. Process configurations used experimentally have included both packed beds and fluidized beds. Denitrifying microbial cultures have been supported on sand, ceramics, polymers, clay, alginate gel, and agar gel. Work with conventional support materials (sand, ceramics, polymers, clay) has been relatively straightforward in that the microbial cultures are grown on support surfaces and water containing nitrate is passed through the fixed or expanded/fluidized bed. Carbon and energy sources, nearly always organic compounds, are added to the water. Thus the problem outlined above - introduction of bacteria and organics - is characteristic of systems used to date.