ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Substrate and Product Inhibition of Nitrification

J. Buday, M. Drtil, M. Hutňan, and J. Derco

Department of Environmental Science, Faculty of Chemical Technology, Slovak University of Technology, SK-812 37 Bratislava

Abstract: Great effort is paid to the development of new technologies, that enable the short-cut of the nitrification-denitrification cycle avoiding the oxidation of NO₂^- to NO₃^- (nitrite route). The nitrification of NH₄⁺ only to NO₂^- and its reduction to gaseous N₂ offers several advantages: lower oxygen demand for nitrification, lower demand of organic matter for the denitrification of NO₂^-, higher denitrification rates of NO₂^- The aim of this work was to obtain more detailed information about the inhibitive forms (dissociated or nondissociated) of the substrate/product as well as about the concentrations that cause inhibition. The substrate-product inhibition was tested in batch tests. Each experiment at a certain pH was carried out using a set of six reactors. One of them served as a reference, while the five others contained different concentrations of the tested compounds. Five sludges from different municipal wastewater treatment plants were used in the experiments. The results obtained from batch inhibition tests carried out on different sludges are briefly summarized in this work. The very similar behaviour of different sludges is worth to note.

Full paper in Portable Document Format: 536a379.pdf

Chemical Papers 53 (6) 379–383 (1999)