Enhanced denitrification of secondary effluent using composite solid carbon source based on agricultural wastes and synthetic polymers

Abstract Solid-phase denitrification is a promising approach to enhance nitrate removal. In this work, polybutylene succinate (PBS) and peanut shell (PS) (with crosslinked polyvinyl alcohol–sodium alginate (PVA-SA) as carrier) were used to prepare a composite solid carbon source (3P) to denitrify the secondary effluent. The results showed that for carbon release performance, 3P had not only a large release of organics, like PS, but also the excellent sustainability of PBS. Among the short chain fatty acids released by PBS, PS, PVA-SA and 3P, the percentages of acetic acid were 59.42%, 72.54%, 72.29% and 92.11%, respectively. When 3P was used as external carbon source, denitrification performance could be enhanced with effluent dissolved organic carbon lower than 20 mg/L. The prepared 3P could improve denitrification, from both microbial and kinetic aspects. The relative abundance of Gammaproteobacteria increased from 39.32% to 43.58%, and the half saturation constant of the fitting Monod equation was 21.28 mg/L. The prepared 3P is an ideal carbon source for secondary effluent denitrification. Using multiple crosslinking methods to produce carrier is an effective way to show the properties of each material.