Nitrogen removal and simultaneous nitrification and denitrification in a fluidized bed step-feed process

For urban wastewater treatment, we conducted a novel four-stage step-feed wastewater treatment system combined with a fluidized bed laboratory experiment to investigate chemical oxygen demand (COD), NH4+-N, and total nitrogen (TN) removal performance. The removal rates of COD, NH4+-N and TN were 88.2%, 95.7%, and 86.4% with effluent concentrations of COD, NH4+-N and TN less than 50, 8, and 10 mg/L, respectively. Biomass and bacterial activities were also measured, with results showing more nitrobacteria in the activated sludge than in the biofilm; however, bacterial activity of the biofilm biomass and the activated sludge were similar. Nitrogen concentrations during the process were also detected, with simultaneous nitrification and denitrification found to be obvious.