The abundance and relevance of Accumulibacter phosphatis (presumed to be polyphosphate-accumulating organisms [PAOs]), Competibacter phosphatis (presumed to be glycogen-accumulating organisms [GAOs]), and tetrad-forming organisms (TFOs) to phosphorus removal performance at six full-scale enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) wastewater treatment plants were investigated. Coexistence of various levels of candidate PAOs and GAOs were found at these facilities. Accumulibacter were found to be 5 to 20% of the total bacterial population, and Competibacter were 0 to 20% of the total bacteria population. The TFO abundance varied from nondetectable to dominant. Anaerobic phosphorus (P) release to acetate uptake ratios (P rel /HAc up ) obtained from bench tests were correlated positively with the abundance ratio of Accumulibacter/(Competibacter 1TFOs) and negatively with the abundance of (Competibacter 1TFOs) for all plants except one, suggesting the relevance of these candidate organisms to EBPR processes. However, effluent phosphorus concentration, amount of phosphorus removed, and process stability in an EBPR system were not directly related to high PAO abundance or mutually exclusive with a high GAO fraction. The plant that had the lowest average effluent phosphorus and highest stability rating had the lowest P rel /HAc up and the most TFOs. Evaluation of full-scale EBPR performance data indicated that low effluent phosphorus concentration and high process stability are positively correlated with the influent readily biodegradable chemical oxygen demand-to-phosphorus ratio. A system-level carbon-distribution-based conceptual model is proposed for capturing the dynamic competition between PAOs and GAOs and their effect on an EBPR process, and the results from this study seem to support the model hypothesis. Water Environ. Res., 80, 688 (2008).

The increasingly more stringent phosphorus (P) discharge limits, which are below the concentrations reliably achievable with currently available technologies, demand for better understanding of phosphorus removal mechanisms. This study investigated the compositional fractions of phosphorus (P) in various effluents as well as the efficacy of different levels of treatment processes for removing different fractions of P in wastewater. The results showed that BNR can effectively remove most fractions of P, with relatively higher efficiencies (>93%) towards bioavailable forms of P including soluble reactive P (sRP), particulate reactive P (pRP) portion and particulate acid hydrolysable P (pAHP) and, it showed relatively lower efficiency (78%) towards organic P. Soluble acid hydrolysable P (sAHP) was not effectively removed (<40%). Chemical P removal process was more effective for elimination of sRP, sAHP and particulate organic P (pOP), but was not as effective for removing pAHP and, it exhibited nearly no removal of dissolved organic P (DOP). We found that chemical P removal process led to a significant increase in the concentration of pRP by up to 255%, indicating that these pRP (presumably as chemically bounded P) are likely formed through chemical precipitation/co-adsorption. Only 22% and 64% of the pRP was removed through tertiary clarifier and filtration, respectively. This implies that chemical addition converts sRP into particulate-associated P, mostly as pRP that was not easily removed by sedimentation and filtration, therefore, the efficacy of chemical P removal highly depends on the effectiveness of solid and liquid separation process. As more sRP and particulate P were removed through the series of treatment processes, the percentage contribution from organic P increases with the level of treatment due to its recalcitrant nature. Our results indicated that in order to achieve extremely low effluent P levels, technologies and processes that can enhance pRP and DOP removal will be required.

This Water Environment Research Foundation study considered the relationship between varying nutrient-removal levels at wastewater treatment plants, greenhouse gas emissions, receiving water quality (measured by potential algal production), and costs. The effluent nutrient concentrations required by some U.S. permits are very low, approaching the technology-best-achievable performance. This study evaluated five different treatment levels at a nominal 40 ML/d (10 mgd) flow. Greenhouse gas emissions and costs increase gradually up to the technologies' best-achievable performance, after which they increase exponentially. The gradual increase is attributed to additional biological treatment facilities, increased energy and chemical use, and additional tertiary nitrogen and phosphorus removal processes. Within the limited focus of this study, the evaluation shows that a point of diminishing return is reached as nutrient-removal objectives approach the technology-best-achievable performance, where greenhouse gas emissions and cost of treatment increases rapidly while the potential for algal growth reduce marginally.

The Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) funded a two-year comprehensive study of nutrient removal plants designed and operated to meet very low effluent total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) concentrations. WERF worked with the Water Environment Federation (WEF) to solicit participation of volunteers and provide a forum for information exchange at workshops at its annual conferences. Both existing and new technologies are being adapted to meet requirements that are as low as 3.0 mg/L TN and 0.1 mg/L TP, and there is a need to define their capabilities and reliabilities in the real world situation of wastewater treatment plants. A concern over very low daily permits for ammonia caused the work to be extended to include nitrification reliability. This effort focused on maximizing what can be learned from existing technologies in order to provide a database that will inform key decision makers about proper choices for both technologies and rationale bases for statistical permit writing. To this end, managers of 22 plants, 10 achieving low effluent TP, nine achieving low effluent TN, and three achieving low effluent NH(3)-N, provided three years of operational data that were analyzed using a consistent statistical approach. Technology Performance Statistics (TPSs) were developed as three separate values representing the ideal, median, and reliably achievable performance. Technological conclusions can be drawn from the study in terms of what can be learned by comparing the different nutrient removal and nitrification processes employed at these 22 plants.

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