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There is a need to develop low operational intensity, cost-effective, and small-footprint systems to treat wastewater. Partial nitritation has been studied using a variety of control strategies, however, a gap in passive operation is evident. This research investigates the use of elevated loading rates as a strategy for achieving low operational intensity partial nitritation in a moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) system. The effects of loading rates on nitrification kinetics and biofilm characteristics were determined at elevated, steady dissolved oxygen concentrations between 5.5 and 7.0 mg O 2 /L and ambient temperatures between 19 and 21 °C. Four elevated loading rates (3, 4, 5 and 6.5 g NH 4 + -N/m 2  days) were tested with a distinct shift in kinetics being observed towards nitritation at elevated loadings. Complete partial nitritation (100% nitrite production) was achieved at 6.5 g NH 4 + -N/m 2  days, likely due to thick biofilm (572 µm) and elevated NH 4 + -N load, which resulted in suppression of nitrite oxidation.

Copper, a prevalent heavy metal in industrial mining wastewaters, has been shown to inhibit nitrification in wastewater treatment systems. Biofilm treatment systems have an inherent potential to reduce inhibition. This study investigated the effects of copper concentration on nitrifying biofilms in moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) systems across long term operation using influent ammonia concentrations representative of gold mining wastewater. Conventional isotherm models did not adequately model the attachment of copper to the biofilm. Long term nitritation was shown to be uninhibited at influent copper concentrations between 0.13 and 0.61 mg Cu/L. Nitratation was inhibited with influent copper concentrations of 0.28-0.61 mg Cu/L. There was no statistical difference in biofilm characteristics, including biofilm thickness, mass and density, across all copper concentrations tested, however, changes in biofilm morphology were observed. The demonstrated resistance of the nitrifying biofilm to copper inhibition makes the MBBR system a promising technology for treating ammonia in mining wastewaters.

The moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR), operated as a post carbon removal system, requires long start-up times in comparison to carbon removal systems due to slow growing autotrophic organisms. This study investigates the use of carriers seeded in a carbon rich treatment system prior to inoculation in a nitrifying MBBR system to promote the rapid development of nitrifying biofilm in an MBBR system at temperatures between 6 and 8 °C. Results show that nitrification was initiated by the carbon removal carriers after 22 h of operation. High throughput 16S-rDNA sequencing indicates that the sloughing period was a result of heterotrophic organism detachment and the recovery and stabilization period included a growth of Nitrosomonas and Nitrospira as the dominant ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in the biofilm. Peripheral microorganisms such as Myxococcales, a rapid EPS producer, appear to have contributed to the recovery and stabilization of the biofilm.

The objective of this work is to investigate the effects of surface area loading rates (SALRs) and hydraulic retention times (HRTs) in moving bed bioreactor (MBBR) systems on the morphology and thickness of the attached biofilm along with subsequent effects on particle size distribution and the settling characteristics of the biologically produced solids. The morphology of biofilm attached to the MBBR carriers changed from a porous biofilm to a biofilm with a more filamentous structure throughout the study at various operating conditions without observable correlation with SALR and HRT. Although, biofilm morphology did not demonstrate an effect on the biologically produced solids observed in this study, the thinnest biofilms resulted in the highest concentration of solids in the effluent. Furthermore, the particle size distribution analysis demonstrated that both higher SALRs and longer HRTs resulted in a shift towards larger-sized particles. Increases in SALR and HRT, independent of each other, also showed increases in effluent solid concentration and lower settleability of the solids.

The objective of this study is to investigate and optimize the co-digestion of scum with thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) and primary sludge (PS) undergoing mesophilic anaerobic digestion. The effect of scum loading on the co-digestion of PS, TWAS and scum has shown to have a significant impact on the ultimate cumulative biogas production and on the specific biogas production between 20 and 40 days of digestion, while the effects of the scum holding time within the scum concentrator and temperature of the scum concentrator did not demonstrate a significant effect on the ultimate or specific biogas production. The study demonstrates that care must be taken to avoid inhibitory effects and potential souring of digesters due to scum overloading and specifically scum overloading in combination with long holding times of scum within the scum concentrator at elevated temperatures.