Denitrifying phosphorous removal in anaerobic/anoxic SBR system with different startup operation mode

To achieve stable and efficient nitrogen and phosphorus removal and to investigate the characteristics of the A/A SBR enriched with denitrifying phosphorus removal bacteria (DPB), the whole course of startup was studied with two reactors operated in different mode. The reactor I was operated under anaerobic/settling/anoxic/settling mode, and the reactor II was operated under anaerobic/anoxic/settling mode. Differences between the two reactors in removal efficiency of COD, nitrogen and phosphorus were examined. The results indicated that efficient performance could be achieved in both reactors with different startup operation mode, while the phosphorus removal efficiency was improved sooner in reactor I than in reactor II, which suggested that reactor I would supply a more favorable condition for DPB proliferation. Meanwhile, it was observed that the amount of organic substrates consumption had a linear correlation to that of phosphorus release in anaerobic phase when DPB was accumulated in the A/A SBR denitrifying phosphorus removal system.