Evaluation of moving bed sand filter for denitrification, suspended solids removal and very low effluent total phosphorus concentrations

Continuously flushing moving bed sand filter was operated in pilot scale for phosphorus (P) and nitrogen removal with simultaneous particle removal. The wastewater tested was either final effluent from a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) with nitrogen removal in moving bed biofilm reactors (MBBRs) followed by coagulation and dissolved air flotation (DAF) for P and suspended solids (SS) removal, or different mixtures of this final effluent and effluent from the MBBR-stage. The study focused on the applicability to achieve low total phosphorus (TP) concentrations (below 0.1 mg/L) and suspended solids concentrations (below 10 mg SS/L), plus good denitrification (removal rate over 750 g NO -N/m -d), by treating wastewater having variable concentrations of TP (from 0.19 to 7.3 mg/L), SS (from 3 to 169 mg/L) and total nitrogen (from 8 to 27 mg/L). The target effluent TP limit was easily achieved when adding coagulant to WWTP effluent. With correct coagulant dose (Al/TP-molar ratio >4) and good particle removal the target effluent TP could also be reached when treating mixed WW with fairly high influent TP. Very high denitrification rates were achieved with adequate influent P concentration and external carbon source. Low denitrification rates were observed when limited by low concentrations of biodegradable carbon and phosphorus.