Author : Keshava Joshi Reshma Rajan, G. Srinikethan and M. B. Saidutta

Nitrate is a common pollutant present in wastewater from many industries, sewage and leachate from municipal waste and this has become a major concern in recent past because of its effect on life forms and also to the environment. Biological nitrification and denitrification is one of the most versatile processes of nitrate removal from wastewaters. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the performance of draft tube spouted bed reactor for denitrification process using Pseudomonas syringae, which was isolated from secondary clarifier of a fertilizer waste water treatment plant and immobilized on granular activated carbon (GAC). The effect of dilution rates on denitrification was investigated and it was found that there is decrease in percentage nitrate removal with increase in influent nitrate concentration as well as dilution rate. For the range of dilution rates studied, the reaction attained a steady state between 30 to 45h. The results indicate that, nitrate and carbon simultaneously can be removed effectively in draft tube spouted bed reactor and therefore, it may serve as a promising reactor in COD and nitrogen removal fields.

Keywords: Pseudomonas syringae, Draft tube spouted bed reactor, Granular activated carbon Dilution rate and Nitrate removal.

Article published in International Journal of Current Engineering and Technology, Vol.4, No.5 (Oct-2014)