Simultaneous nitrate and organic matter removal from salmon industry wastewater: The effect of C/N ratio, nitrate concentration and organic load rate on batch and continuous process

C. Huiliñir, S. Hernández, E. Aspé, M. Roeckel*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Although simultaneous denitrification-anaerobic digestion has been studied extensively, the use of salmon effluents as organic matter source has received little attention. This study evaluated the effect of C/N ratio, nitrate concentration, and organic load rate (OLR) on simultaneous nitrate and organic matter removal using salmon effluents. The study was carried out in a batch reactor with suspended biomass at 37 °C and pH 7.5, and in continuous biofilm tubular reactors at 37 °C fed with a mixture of a synthetic substrate and a saline protein-rich salmon-plant effluent. The results of the batch and continuous experiments showed that nitrate abatement was greater than 95% at all the studied C/N ratios, without effect of the C/N ratio on NO3--N transformation and ammonia production. An increase of nitrate concentration increased organic matter consumption as well as the hydrolytic rate. The organic matter reduction varied between 88% and 40% in the continuous process. For a continuous process, the increase of the OLR decreases the removal of organic matter.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)82-91
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Environmental Management
Volume101
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Jun 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • C/N ratio
  • Fishery effluents
  • OLR
  • Simultaneous denitrification/anaerobic digestion

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