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A modeling understanding on the phosphorous removal performances of A2O and reversed A2O processes in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant

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Abstract

Reversed A2O process (anoxic-anaerobic-aerobic) and conventional A2O process (anaerobic-anoxic-aerobic) are widely used in many wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in Asia. However, at present, there are still no consistent results to figure out which process has better total phosphorous (TP) removal performance and the mechanism for this difference was not clear yet. In this study, the treatment performances of both processes were compared in the same full-scale WWTP and the TP removal dynamics was analyzed by a modeling method. The treatment performance of full-scale WWTP showed the TP removal efficiency of the reversed A2O process was more efficient than in the conventional A2O process. The modeling results further reveal that the TP removal depends highly on the concentration and composition of influent COD. It had more efficient TP removal than the conventional A2O process only under conditions of sufficient influent COD and high fermentation products content. This study may lay a foundation for appropriate selection and optimization of treatment processes to suit practical wastewater properties.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51408587; 51522812; 51778301).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environment, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210046, China

    Wen-Ming Xie, Guo-Xiang Wang & Li-Min Zhang

  2. CAS Key Laboratory of Urban Pollutants Conversion, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Wen-Ming Xie & Wen-Wei Li

  3. Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Raymond J. Zeng & Wen-Wei Li

Authors
  1. Wen-Ming Xie
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  2. Raymond J. Zeng
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  3. Wen-Wei Li
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  4. Guo-Xiang Wang
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  5. Li-Min Zhang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Li-Min Zhang.

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Responsible editor: Bingcai Pan

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Xie, WM., Zeng, R.J., Li, WW. et al. A modeling understanding on the phosphorous removal performances of A2O and reversed A2O processes in a full-scale wastewater treatment plant. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 22810–22817 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2317-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-2317-3

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