Title: Biological denitrification of drinking water using biodegradable polymer

Authors: Xuan Zhao, Xianlin Meng, Jianlong Wang

Addresses: Laboratory of Environmental Technology, INET, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China. ' Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, PR China. ' Laboratory of Environmental Technology, INET, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, PR China

Abstract: The application of Biodegradable Polymer (BDPs), which can serve as biofilm carrier and simultaneously as water insoluble carbon source for heterotrophic denitrification. The external dosing of soluble organic substrate can be therefore avoided and process can be simplified as normal bio-filter. In this paper, the lab-scale experiment was carried out by using the cheap material of PBS, a new kind of commercial polymer polymerised by PCL and starch, and the results demonstrated that it was very efficient to eliminate nitrate. The PBS material performs the comparable non-sensitivity for the pH and DO value. The elevation of temperature within the range of 10-30°C can accelerate the process of denitrification. The BDPs bio-filter offers the favourable elimination of nitrate up to a total operation of 40 days.

Keywords: nitrate removal; biological denitrification; water supply; BDP; biodegradable polymers; drinking water; biofilms; biofilters.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEP.2009.027233

International Journal of Environment and Pollution, 2009 Vol.38 No.3, pp.328 - 338

Published online: 18 Jul 2009 *

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