Partial nitrification and anammox process: A method for high strength optoelectronic industrial wastewater treatment

Completely autotrophic nitrogen removal over nitrite (CANON) process was employed in an 18 L sequencing batch reactor (SBR) for treatment of optoelectronic industrial wastewater containing high strength ammonium nitrogen (3712 ± 120 mg NH4+-N L−1). About 89% of total nitrogen and 98% of NH4+-N removal efficiencies were observed at the loading rate of 909 g N m−3 d−1 and the HRT of 4 d. A profound variation in the performance of CANON process was experienced at high DO exposure (above 1 mg L−1) and high nitrite concentration (above 100 mg L−1). Inhibition due to high DO exposure was found to be reversible phenomenon whereas the synergistic inhibition of nitrite, free ammonia and free nitrous acid was irreversible. The fluctuation of reactor temperature between 17 and 37 °C did not affect the performance of CANON system. The CANON process was stably controlled at high nitrogen loading rate for more than one month. The co-existence of aerobic and anaerobic ammonium oxidizing bacteria in the reactor was detected by The PCR analysis. About 5 fold increase in amount of anammox bacteria over a period of 258 days was confirmed from the results of qPCR on day 487. ► CANON process is developed to treat the NH4+-N rich optoelectronic wastewater. ► High TN (∼89%) and NH4+-N (∼98%) removal achieved at NLR of 909 g N m−3 d−1. ► Long term stable performance of CANON with high NLR was achieved. ► Co-existence of AOB and Anammox bacteria confirmed by PCR. ► Temperature (between 17 and 37 °C) had no effect on the CANON process.