Nitrous oxide production during nitrogen removal from domestic wastewater in lab-scale sequencing batch reactor

The production of N2O during nitrogen removal from real domestic wastewater was investigated in a lab-scale aerobic-anoxic sequencing batch reactor with a working volume of 14 L. The results showed that the total N2O-N production reached higher than 1.87 mg/L, and up to 4% of removed nitrogen was converted into N2O. In addition, N2O led to a much higher greenhouse effect than CO2 during aerobic reaction phase, this proved that N2O production could not be neglected. The N2O-N production during nitrification was 1.85 mg/L, whereas, during denitrification, no N2O was produced, nitrification was the main source of N2O production during nitrogen removal. Furthermore, during denitrification, the dissolved N2O at the end of aeration was found to be further reduced to N2. Denitrification thus had the potential of controlling N2O production.