Fate of dissolved organic nitrogen during biological nutrient removal wastewater treatment processes

Due to its potential to form toxic nitrogenous disinfection byproducts (N-DBPs), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) is considered as one of the most important parameters in wastewater treatment plants (WWTP). This study describes a comprehensive investigation of variations in DON levels in orbal oxidation ditches. The results showed that DON increased gradually from 0.71 to 1.14 mg l(-1) along anaerobic zone, anoxic zone, aerobic zone 1 and aerobic 2. Molecular weight fractionation of DON in one anaerobic zone and one aerobic zone (aerobic zone 2) was performed. We found that the proportion of small molecular weight (<6 kDa) decreased and large molecular weight (>20 kDa) showed opposite trend. This variation may have been caused due to the release of different types of soluble microbial products (SMPs) during biological processes. These SMPs contained both tryptophan protein-like and aromatic protein-like substances, which were confirmed by three-dimensional excitation-emission matrix (EEM) analysis.