Nitrogen removal with intermittent aeration

For nitrogen removal with intermittent aeration, the ratio between anoxic phases and aerobic phases
(VD/VAT) is equal to (ATV-DVWK-A 131E, 2000):
S
VD
2.9
NO 3, D
VAT CBOD , IAT 0.75 OU C , BOD

where:

SNO3,D is the denitrified nitrogen concentration;

CBOD,IAT is the influent BOD5 concentration;
OUC,BOD is the specific oxygen uptake for carbon removal per unit load of BOD5 (ATV-DVWK-A
131E, 2000):
OU C , BOD 0.56

0.15 1.072T 15 tSS

1 0.17 1.072T 15 tSS

tSS is the sludge age.

The cycle time (tT) can be determined as follows (ATV-DVWK-A 131E, 2000):
tT t R

S NO 3, EST
S NH 4, N

2h

where:

tR is the hydraulic retention time inside the intermittent aeration tank;

SNO3,EST is the effluent nitrate concentration;
SNH4,N is the nitrified ammonia concentration.

Therefore, the duration of anoxic (tD) and aerobic phases (tN) is equal to:

t D tT

VD
VAT

V
t N tT 1 D
VAT
To calculate the hourly oxygen uptake (OUh), the presence of anoxic phases should be considered (ATVDVWK-A 131E, 2000):
OU h

where OUd is the daily oxygen uptake.

OU d

V
24 1 D
VAT

Biological phosphorous removal

For biological phosphorous removal, the following process layout is considered (DWA-M 227, 2014):

QIR1

Anaerobic tank
(Vana, xana)

Qin

Anoxic tank
(Vanox, xanox)

Aerobic tank
(Vaer, xaer)

QIR2

QRS

Membrane
tank
(Vm, xm)

Qout

QWAS

The anaerobic tank volume (Vana) is calculated as follows:

Vana HRTana ,min Q24,max QIR 2

where:

HRTana is the hydraulic retention time inside the anaerobic reactor;

Q24,max is the maximum dry weather influent flow;
QIR2 is the internal recycle flow from the anoxic tank to the anaerobic tank.

HRTana is greater than 0.50 0.75 h (ATV-DVWK-A 131E, 2000) or equal to 1 2 h (DWA-M 227, 2014).
Said volume should be enough to have at least 10% of the total biomass in anaerobic conditions (DWAM 227, 2014):

Vana xana

Vana xana
0.10
Vanox xanox Vaer xaer

where:

xana is the biomass concentration inside the anaerobic tank;

xanox is the biomass concentration inside the anoxic tank;
xaer is the biomass concentration inside the aerobic tank;
Vanox is the volume of the anoxic tank;
Vaer is the volume of the aerobic tank.

For a set internal recycle ratio (IR2) from the anoxic tank to the anaerobic tank, it is possible to calculate
the biomass concentration inside the anaerobic tank as follows:
xana xanox

IR 2
1 IR 2

According to ATV-DVWK-A 131E (2000), in case of normal municipal wastewater, the excess biological
phosphorus removal (TPbio-P) is equal to (0.010 0.015)BOD5,in. If effluent nitrate concentrations are
equal to or greater than 15 mg/L, TPbio-P is equal to (0.005 0.010)BOD5,in.
The phosphate to be precipitated is calculated as follows:
TPprec TPin TPout TPsyn TPbio P

and the total sludge production resulting from phosphorus removal (SPd,P) as follows (ATV-DVWK-A
131E, 2000):
SPd , P Qd 3 TPbio P 6.8 TPprec , Fe 5.3 TPprec , Al