Volume 10
Issue 2
Environmental Development
JOURNAL OF
POLISH
AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITIES
Available Online: http://www.ejpau.media.pl/volume10/issue2/abs-01.html
THE EFFECT OF MICROWAVE RADIATION ON THE CHANGES OF NITROGEN COMPOUNDS IN A REACTOR WITH A BIOFILM
Marcin Zieliński, Mirosław Krzemieniewski
Department of Environment Protection Engineering,
University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland
ABSTRACT
This paper shows the results of the research on the effect of microwave radiation on the changes of nitric compounds in a reactor with a biofilm. The bioreactor was placed inside a microwave tube, in which it was exposed to radiation. Municipal wastewater were supplied to the bioreactor from the retention tank, to which they returned having flowed through the reactor’s packing. The whole mechanism worked in a periodic system at the 24-hour retention of the wastes supply. The research made use of specific properties of microwave heating, which involved selective heating of only substances marked by suitable dielectric properties. Owing to the effect obtained by means of a right construction of the reactor and the synchronization of the microwave generator and the volumetric pump, microwave energy was directed mainly to the biofilm. The results achieved show the influence of microwave radiation on the course of nitric changes in the biofilm. In a control reactor, which was not exposed to radiation, the changes of nitric compounds ended up in oxidizing ammonia nitrogen, and nitrogen losses stemmed from the biomass synthesis exclusively. However the input of microwaves resulted in anoxic conditions in the biofilm and the reductive changes of nitrates and nitrites. It cannot be stated unequivocally to what extent the nitrogen losses occurred as a result of heterotrophic denitrification and to what due to the ANAMMOX process. Nevertheless nitrogen removal in the reactor exposed to radiation reached 55% whereas in the control reactor – below 9%.
Key words: nitrogen compounds, microwave, nitrification, denitrification, ANAMMOX.
Marcin Zieliński
Department of Environment Protection Engineering,
University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland
Prawochenskiego 1, 10-957 Olsztyn, Poland
Phone: (089) 523 32 57
email: marcin.zielinski@uwm.edu.pl
Mirosław Krzemieniewski
Department of Environment Protection Engineering,
University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland
Prawochenskiego 1, 10-957 Olsztyn, Poland
Responses to this article, comments are invited and should be submitted within three months of the publication of the article. If accepted for publication, they will be published in the chapter headed 'Discussions' and hyperlinked to the article.