Effect of Return Sludge Pre-concentration on Biological Phosphorus Removal in a Novel Oxidation Ditch

A pilot-scale,pre-anoxic-anaerobic oxidation ditch was used in this study to treat municipal wastewater with limited carbon source.A novel return activated sludge（RAS） pre-concentration tank was adopted for improv-ing the phosphorus removal efficiency and the effects of RAS pre-concentration ratio were studied.Under the opti-mal operational condition,the suspended total phosphorus（STP） and the total phosphorus（TP） removal efficiencies were around 58.9% and 63.9% respectively and the effluent-P was lower than 0.8 mg·L-1.The reason is that with the optimal RAS pre-concentration ratio,nitrate is completely removed with endogenous carbon source and the secondary phosphorus release is strictly restrained in the pre-anoxic tank.Therefore,the anaerobic phosphorus release and the carbon source uptake by phosphorus accumulation organisms（PAOs） in the sludge,which are ex-tremely important to the phosphorus removal process,can be fully satisfied.Furthermore,the oxidation-reduction potential is proved to be suitable for controlling the RAS pre-concentration ratio due to influent fluctuation and varied conditions.The novel modified system is also beneficial for PAO accumulation.