ANALYSIS OF DENITRIFICATION WITH A COMPLETELY SUBMERGED PILOT-SCALE ROTATING BIOLOGICAL CONTACTOR

The hydraulic characteristics and the denitrifying capacity of a single‐stage 0.5 m diam completely submerged rotating biological contactor were studied. A two compartment model was proposed and fitted the data obtained from pulse dye applications at two different flow rate. Denitrification rates with an influent C:N ratio at 1.5:1 proved to be independent of NO3 + NO2‐N concentration. The pooled denitrification data obtained under the two different flow rates could be fitted by an Arrhenius relationship for temperature over the range of 5 to 25°C. The activation energy was 16500 cal/g−mol. A substantially higher volumetric removal capacity was observed than has previously been reported for either suspended or supported denitrifying systems. Copyright © 1979 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.