A Comparison of Operating Issues and Dosing Requirements for Alternative Carbon Sources in Denitrification Filters

The need for alternative supplemental carbon sources to support denitrification has been magnified during the past few years because of parallel nutrient reduction initiatives for the Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound. As a result, research into the use of alternative carbon sources is ongoing, including investigation into the impacts of different substrates on activated sludge denitrification kinetics as well as establishing the carbon requirements specific to each substrate. Denitrification filters are a popular add-on technology for meeting low nitrogen limits, and test results from several facilities suggest that there are some unique operating considerations associated with the use of different carbon sources. This paper presents denitrification filter data for several alternative carbon sources, and compares and contrasts the performance with methanol and theoretical values. This information was first presented by the authors in deBarbadillo et al., 2009.