Advancement of an amended biofiltration system for the removal of ammonia: Fid-Bau Portal

Advancement of an amended biofiltration system for the removal of ammonia

Phan, Duc Cong / Kim, Jae Young

Abstract High fluctuation of influent loading deteriorates performance of biofiltration systems. We have applied a buffer column to mitigate the effect of fluctuated loading. Three inorganic materials (Mobile Crystalline Material-41 (MCM-41), Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) and Bio-coal) as adsorbent of the buffer column were compared with one another. MCM-41 has higher ammonia adsorption capacity and desorption rate than the other materials. Due to this property, MCM-41 buffer column has high potential to reduce shock loading and stably provide substrate for microorganisms in biofiltration at the lower loading periods. Based on these results, an amended biofiltration system with the buffer column packed with MCM-41 was developed for the removal of ammonia. The results showed that MCM-41 played an important role in mitigating the fluctuations in the influent concentration and normalize the ammonia influent concentration. The performance of the amended biofiltration system was more stable than a conventional biofiltration system, i.e. without any pre-treatment. Under the long-term plug-flow test conditions implemented in this study, the minimum removal efficiency of the amended biofiltration system was over 98%, while those of conventional biofiltration systems range between 60 and 80%.