Bio-reduction of nitrate from groundwater using a hydrogen-basedmembrane biofilm reactor
Siqing Xia , Fohua Zhong , Yanhao Zhang , Haixiang Li , Xin Yang
DOI:
Received January 05, 2009,Revised May 18, 2009, Accepted , Available online
Volume 22,2010,Pages 257-262
- Summary
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A hydrogen-based membrane biofilm reactor (MBfR) using H2 as electron donor was investigated to remove nitrate from
groundwater. When nitrate was first introduced to the MBfR, denitrification took place on the shell side of the membranes immediately,
and the e uent concentration of nitrate continuously decreased with 100% removal rate on day 45 under the influent nitrate
concentration of 5 mg NO3??-N/L, which described the acclimating and enriching process of autohydrogenotrophic denitrification
bacteria. A series of short-term experiments were applied to investigate the e ects of hydrogen pressures and nitrate loadings on
denitrification. The results showed that nitrate reduction rate improved as H2 pressure increasing, and over 97% of total nitrogen
removal rate was achieved when the nitrate loading increased from 0.17 to 0.34 g NO3??-N/(m2 day) without nitrite accumulation.
The maximum denitrification rate was 384 g N/(m3 day). Partial sulfate reduction, which occurred in parallel to nitrate reduction, was
inhibited by denitrififcation due to the competition for H2. This research showed that MBfR is e ective for removing nitrate from the
contaminated groundwater.
