JID: JTICE

ARTICLE IN PRESS [m5G;February 12, 2021;18:47]

Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers 000 (2021) 1
7

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Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jtice

Application of natural biodegradable fiber as biofilm medium and carbon

source in DEnitrifying AMmonium OXidation (DEAMOX) process for
nitrogen removal from wastewater
Saeed Dehestaniathara, Shiva Nesaria, Sina Borzooeib, Soroush Abolfathic,*
a
Environmental Health Research Center, Institute for Health Development, Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, Sanandaj, Iran
b
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Torino, 10129 Torino, Italy
c
School of Engineering, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article History: Nitrite (NO2
) accumulation and retaining of anammox bacteria are two decisive factors for stable operation
Received 16 September 2020 of partial denitrification coupled with the anammox process. Denitrifying ammonium oxidation (DEAMOX)
Revised 15 January 2021 process has been regarded as a promising method for nitrogen removal from wastewater containing both
Accepted 28 January 2021
ammonium (NH4+) and nitrate (NO3
) pollutants simultaneously. However, performance and efficiency of
Available online xxx
DEAMOX process in biofilm reactors are still not fully understood. This study successfully implements biode-
Keywords: gradable Luffa Cylindrica fiber as both carbon source and biofilm carrier in the DEAMOX system. 87% nitrate-
Wastewater treatment to-nitrite transformation was achieved through the partial denitrification process. An average total nitrogen
Partial-denitrification (TN) removal efficiency of ~98% was obtained with influent NH4+-N and NO3
-N concentration of 100 mg L
1
Packed bed reactor in an up-flow packed bed biofilm reactor. The Field Emission-Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) analy-
Anammox sis indicated that for the proposed conditions, the DEAMOX packed bed reactor favor biofilm granulation
Biofilm developed on L. cylindrica. The results imply that solid phase partial denitrification and granulation of anam-
Luffa cylindrica
mox bacteria were achieved using L. cylindrica as a carbon source and biofilm carrier, respectively. Complete
NO3
removal observed in this study supports the hypothesis that solid carbon source can support denitrifi-
cation of NO3
produced through the anammox process.
© 2021 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction carbon source leads to NO2
accumulation, while overdosing results

High concentrations of nitrogen (N) compounds can deteriorate
the aquatic environmental quality and threaten human health. There-
fore, to protect water resources and public health from the detrimen-
tal effects of N compounds, stringent nutrient levels for N
compounds concentration of treated wastewater have been set by
many countries [1
3]. The conventional NH4+ removal process is
accomplished by nitrification/denitrification, associated with high
costs and gives rise to an adverse effect on the environment due to
the high biomass production and greenhouse gas emission, contrib-
uting to global warming [4
7]. Although the biological process is
economical for N removal, it is not highly effective for wastewater
with a low COD/N ratio due to the shortage of carbon source needed
for denitrification [8]. One way to improve the efficiency of N removal
process is adding external carbon sources, including methanol, etha-
nol, acetic acid and glucose, which is costly and with the potential
risk of insufficient or overdosing of carbon sources [8]. Insufficient
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: soroush.abolfathi@warwick.ac.uk (S. Abolfathi).
in remains of organic carbon in the effluent [8]. In recent years, inno-
vative and cost-efficient autotrophic nitrogen removal systems
including SHARON, ANAMMOX, combined Partial SHARON/ANAM-
MOX process in two bioreactors, and combined Partial SHARON/
ANAMMOX process in a single bioreactor (i.e. OLAND, CANON, and
DEMON process) have been proposed as promising alternatives for
the treatment of NH4+ rich wastewaters [9]. In all of the nitrogen
removal processes, NO2
plays a key role in promoting biochemical
reactions involved in NH4+ removal. These innovations have rapidly
finding favours due to their higher efficiency and lower cost in com-
parison to the conventional N-removal methods [10]. The anammox
process was found a cost-effective N removal technology compared
to the traditional nitrification-denitrification methods, given that
anammox requires less oxygen and the addition of organic carbon is
not essential [11,12]. Nonetheless, slow start-up and strict opera-
tional conditions are the main barriers to more widespread use of
autotrophic N removal systems [10]. In addition, during anammox
reaction, 11% of N is converted to NO3
, resulting in maximum N
removal efficiency of 87% [13]. Meng et al. [14] reported high concen-
tration of NO3
in effluent of anammox, indicating that denitrification

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2021.01.030
1876-1070/© 2021 Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article as: S. Dehestaniathar et al., Application of natural biodegradable fiber as biofilm medium and carbon source in
DEnitrifying AMmonium OXidation (DEAMOX) process for nitrogen removal from wastewater, Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical
Engineers (2021), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2021.01.030