Abstract
The effects of ozonation conditions on the performance of a continuous anaerobic/oxic/anoxic (A/O/A) process with sludge ozonation and phosphorus adsorption were investigated. In this system, excess sludge was ozonated by microbubble ozonation, and then the supernatant of the ozonated sludge was flowed into a phosphorus adsorption column packed with zirconium-ferrite adsorbent. The effluent from the column and the settlings of the ozonated sludge were recirculated in the A/O/A process. Long-term operation of a lab-scale system treating rural wastewater showed that ozonation affected not only the sludge reduction efficiency but also the nitrogen removal efficiency. When the amount of sludge to be ozonated was set at 16% of total MLSS per day, no excess sludge was withdrawn, but the nitrogen removal efficiency was deteriorated. Decreasing the amount of sludge to be ozonated (to 9.4% of total MLSS per day) resulted in efficient nitrogen removal, but the MLSS concentration increased slightly. Phosphorus accumulated in the sludge was re-solubilized by ozonation, and a large part of the solubilized phosphorus consisted of Pi. Almost all Pi was recovered in the phosphorus adsorption column.