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Focuses on a novel sewage treatment system, which consists of an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) pre-treatment unit and the following downflow hanging sponge (DHS) unit for polishing up the UASB effluent which was developed as a cost-effective and easy-maintenance sewage treatment system for developing countries.

Fluorescence in-situ hybridization (FISH) and DO microelectrodes were applied to biofilms developed in a novel reactor named DHS (downflow hanging sponge-cubes), to investigate the mechanisms of simultaneous carbon removal and nitrification. The DHS reactor was employed as an aerobic post-treatment process after an UASB anaerobic pre-treatment process receiving a municipal sewage. The presence ratio of Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter cells to total cells of the DHS biomass was estimated by FISH technique to be 1.4% and 0.18%, respectively. Cell concentrations of both nitrifying bacteria were in good agreement with the magnitudes of ammonia-oxidizing and nitrite-oxidizing activities evaluated from batch tests. The habitats of both nitrifiers were the interior space of sponge-cubes, rather than within the biofilms attached onto sponge-cube surfaces. DO microelectrodes verify that the sponge-cubes insides were kept aerobically throughout the whole reactor height excluding the inlet vicinity portion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A novel sewage treatment system was proposed, which consists of a UASB anaerobic pretreatment unit and the following DHS (downflow hanging sponge-cubes) aerobic posttreatment unit, as a low-cost and easy-maintenance process for developing countries. Over six months experiment by feeding sewage our proposed system achieved 94% of total-COD removal, 81% of soluble-COD removal. and nearly perfect SS removal and total-BOD removal at the overall HRT of 8.3 hr (7 hr in UASB and 1.3 hr in DHS unit). Moreover, the DHS reactor was capable of performing high (73--78%) nitrification. Our whole system requires neither external aeration input nor withdrawal of excess sludge. (c) 1997 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an evaluation of the process performance of a pilot-scale "fourth generation" downflow hanging sponge (DHS) post-treatment system combined with a UASB pretreatment unit treating municipal wastewater. After the successful operation of the second- and third-generation DHS reactors, the fourth-generation DHS reactor was developed to overcome a few shortcomings of its predecessors. This reactor was designed to further enhance the treatment efficiency and simplify the construction process in real scale, especially for the application in developing countries. Configuration of the reactor was modified to enhance the dissolution of air into the wastewater and to avert the possible clogging of the reactor especially during sudden washout from the UASB reactor. The whole system was operated at a total hydraulic retention time (HRT) of 8 h (UASB: 6 h and DHS: 2 h) for a period of over 600 days. The combined system was able to remove 96% of unfiltered BOD with only 9 mg/L remaining in the final effluent. Likewise, F. coli were removed by 3.45 log with the final count of 10(3) to 10(4) MPN/100 ml. Nutrient removal by the system was also satisfactory.