Abstracts Book - IMRC 2018

• SF5-O016
NITRIFICATION IN A MEMBRANE BIOLOGICAL REACTOR IN
PRESENCE OF PHENOLIC COMPOUNDS
Paulina Sarabia 1 , Alfonso Durán 2
1 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Química, Mexico. 2 Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México, Facultad de Química, Mexico.
Inorganic and organic compounds like ammoniacal nitrogen (N-NH 4 + ) and
phenols are found in industrial wastewater, mainly from oil refining. An
alternative for its remotion are biological processes, where simultaneous
remotion, ammoniacal nitrogen (NH 4 + ) and phenols have been studied
individually (1) or a mixture (2) According to different researches, the nitrification
process (from N-NH 4
+
to N-NO 3 - ) decrease with the phenols presence (3), where
the phenolic compounds are considered as inhibitors of nitrifying bacterias. In
this work, a membrane biological reactor (MBR) was used. The reactor was
inoculated with biomass previously adapted to oxidation of ammonium during
4 months in batch reactors without organic carbon source like phenols. The
reactor was operated without sludge purge over a period of 80 days, a hydraulic
retention time (HRT) of 24 h, flux rate of 3 mL/min and an influent concentration
(N-NH 4 + ) of 300 mg/L. After 10 days of a stable nitrification at 90 % in the MBR,
initially 12 mg/L of a mixture of phenols (phenol, o-cresol, p-cresol, 3,4-
dimethylphenol and 3,5-dimethylphenol) was added to the reactor. The
stabilization was obtained in 15 days. After that, the concentration of phenols
was increased to 24, 36 and 60 mg of total phenol/L, at the same time of
stabilization. At the end of a period of 70 days, the mixture of phenols was
removed successfully up to 90 %. The specific rates of nitrification and oxidation
phenols were from 0.04 to 0.08 mg N-NH 4
+
/mg SSVd and from 0.0025 to 0.011
mg of total phenols/mg SSVd, respectively. Additionally, a MBR can operate
efficiently and stable for process nitrification without inhibition due to phenols.
References
(1). Amor, L.; Eiroa, M.; Kennes, C. and Veiga, M. C. (2005). Phenol biodegradation
and its effect on the nitrification process. Water Res., 39, 2915-2920.
(2). Pérez-González, D.; Gómez, J. R. and Beristain-Cardoso, R. (2012). Biological
removal of p-cresol, phenol, p-hydroxibenzoato and ammonium using a
nitrifying continuous-flow reactor. Bioresource Technol., 120, 194-198.
(3). Pérez-Alfaro, J. E.; Buitrón, G.; Gómez, J.; Texier, A. C. and Cuervo-López, F. M.
(2013). Kinetic and physiological evaluation of Ammonium and nitrito oxidation
processes in presence of 2-chlophenol. Appl. Biochem. Biotech., 169, 990-1000.