A Review of Anoxic Wastewater Treatment: An Overlooked Aspect in Wastewater Treatment in Nigeria

B. Yorkor^1, and Y. O. L. Momoh¹

¹Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Cite this paper

B. Yorkor and Y. O. L. Momoh. A Review of Anoxic Wastewater Treatment: An Overlooked Aspect in Wastewater Treatment in Nigeria. American Journal of Water Resources. 2019; 7(4):136-145. doi: 10.12691/AJWR-7-4-2

Abstract

This paper presented an overview of different methods for nitrogen and phosphorus removal from wastewater effluents in Nigeria. Research data indicated that wastewater effluents in Nigeria contain high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, which contributed to the eutrophication of many surface water bodies in the country. Study of wastewater characteristics in Nigeria showed that wastewater effluents in Nigeria contain an average of 650mg/l of total nitrogen, 120mg/l of total phosphate and 55,000mg/l of COD; nitrate-nitrogen and phosphorus ranged between 43mg/l and 56mg/l; ammonium nitrogen ranged between 52mg/l and 107mg/l; nitrate nitrogen from ranged 34.5mg/l and 58.5mg/l. The technologies and principles of anoxic treatment of wastewater are presented. The stoichiometry of nitrification and denitrification reactions are presented. State and Federal Ministry of Environment in Nigeria should enforce relevant regulations to ensure that wastewater effluents are treated to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus content to acceptable standards before discharge into watercourses.

Keywords

nitrogen, phosphorus, eutrophication, chemical precipitation, biological removal, nitrification-denitrification, stoichiometric equations, wuhrmann system, ludzack-ettinger system, bardenpho 4-stage process

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

[1]	Leton, T. G. Water and Wastewater Engineering, Celwill Nigeria Limited, 2004.
[2]	Metcalf and Eddy, Inc., Wastewater engineering: treatment and reuse, Tata McGraw-Hill New Delhi, 2004.
[3]	Liu, D. H. F., and Liptak, B. G. Environmental Engineer’ Handbook. CRC Press LLC, 2000 Corporate Blvd, 1999.
[4]	Comber, S., Gardner, M., Georges, K., Blackwood, D. and Gilmour, D. Domestic Source of Phosphorus to Sewage Treatment Works, Environmental Technology.
[5]	Cadmus Group, Inc., Nutrient Control Design Manual. The Cadmus Group, Inc. Scientific, Technical, Research, Engineering, and Modeling Support (STREAMS) Task Order 68, (2010).
[6]	Kumar, A. “Wastewater Treatment Processes” arunku@civil.iitd.ac.in, 2016, accessed on July 26, 2019.
[7]	Rybicki, S. “Advanced Wastewater Treatment: Report No 1” Phosphorus Removal from Wastewater. A Literature Review. Division of Water Resources Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Royal Institute of Technology, 1997.
[8]	U.S. Public Health Service and USEPA. “Clean Watersheds Needs Surveys 2004 Report to Congress”. http://www.epa.gov/cwns/2004rtc/cwns2004rtc.pdf, 2008. Accessed on July 23, 2019.
[9]	NER, (1999). Interim effluent limitation Guidelines in Nigeria for all Categories or Industries. National Environment (Standards for Discharge of Effluent into Water or on Land) Regulations, S.I. No 5/1999 (Under section 26 and 107 of the National Environment Act, Cap 153).
[10]	Tallec, G., J. Garnier, and M. Gousailles. Nitrous Removal in a Wastewater Treatment Plant through Biofilters: Nitrous Oxide Emissions during Nitrification and Denitrification. Bioprocess and Biosystem Engineering. 29: 323-333, 2006.
[11]	Ahn, J.H., S. Kim, H. Park, D. Katehis, K. Pagilla, and K. Chandran Spatial and Temporal Variability in N2O Generation and Emission from Wastewater Treatment Facilities. Presented at Nutrient Removal. Washington, DC. WEF, 2009.
[12]	Tchobanoglous, G., F. L. Burton, and H.D. Stensel. Wastewater Engineering: Treatment and Reuse, McGraw-Hill New York, 2003.
[13]	Ohioma, A. I., Luke, N. O., and Amraibure, O. Studies on the pollution potential of wastewater from textile processing factories in Kaduna, Nigeria. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health Sciences Vol. 1 (2), 2009 pp. 034-037.
[14]	Otunyo, A. W., Edward, K. and Ogina, O. D., “Evaluation of the Performance of the Domestic Wastewater Treatment Facility of a Hotel in Port Harcourt, Rivers State Nigeria”, Nigerian Journal of Technology, Vol. 35, No. 2, 2016, pp. 441-447.
[15]	Siyanbola1, T. O., Ajanaku, K. O., James, O. O., Olugbuyiro1, J. A. O. and Adekoya, J. O., Physico-Chemical Characteristics Of Industrial Effluents In Lagos State, Nigeria. G. J. P & A Sc and Tech., 2011v01, 2011, pp 49-54.
[16]	Mbanefo, O. N., Nnaemeka, M. C., Uba, N. I., Chukwuemeka, O. L., and Ugwuishiwu B. O. Evaluation of the characteristics of wastewater from slaughterhouses in South Eastern Nigeria for design of appropriate treatment System. Int. Res. J. Environmental Sci. Vol. 8(1), 2019, pp 23-29.
[17]	Kanu, I., and Achi, O. K., “Industrial Effluents and Their Impact on Water Quality of Receiving Rivers in Nigeria”, Journal of Applied Technology in Environmental Sanitation, 1 (1), 2011, pp 75-86.
[18]	Balmér P. and Hultman B. “Control of phosphorus discharges: present situation and trends”, Hydrobiologia vol.170, 1988. pp. 305-319.
[19]	Environmental Protection Agency, “Design manual. Phosphorus removal” US EPA conference proceedings 625/1-87-001, 1987.
[20]	Guyer, J. P. “Introduction to Advanced Wastewater Treatment”, Course No: C04-020 Continuing Education and Development, Inc., 2011.
[21]	WEF and ASCE. “Design of Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants” – WEF Manual of Practice 8 and ASCE Manuals and Reports on Engineering Practice No. 76, 5th Ed., 2009.
[22]	Smith, S., A. Szabó, I. Takács, S. Murthy, I. Licskó, and G. Daigger. The Significance of Chemical Phosphorus Removal Theory for Engineering Practice. In Nutrient Removal, WEF Conference, 2007.
[23]	Szabó, A., I. Takács, S. Murthy, G.T. Daigger, I. Licskó, and S. Smith. “Significance of Design and Operational Variables in Chemical Phosphorus Removal”, Journal of Water Environment Research, 80(5), 2008, pp 407-416.
[24]	WERF. 2009. “Molecular Level Through Whole Reactor Level Characterization of Greenhouse Nitrogen Emission from Wastewater Treatment Operations”, Project Number: U4R07. Updated: July 16, 2009. Alexandria, VA: WERF.
[25]	Neethling, J.B., M. Benisch, D. Clark, A. G. “Phosphorus Speciation Provides Direction to Produce 10 μg/L. In Nutrient Removal”, WEF Conference,.2007.
[26]	Lancaster, C.D. and J.E. Madden. “Not So Fast! The Impact of Recalcitrant Phosphorus on the Ability to Meet Low Phosphorus Limits”, In WEFTEC 2008.
[27]	Eleuterio, L. and J.B. Neethling. “Low Phosphorus Analytical Measurement Study. Presented at Nutrient Removal” WEF conference, 2009, Washington DC.
[28]	Arvin E. “Biological phosphorus removal - systems, design and operation”, Vatten vol.40 (4), 1984, pp. 411-415.
[29]	Rowan, A. K., J. R. Snape, D. Fearnside, M. R. Barer, T. P. Curtis, and I. M. Head.. “Composition and Diversity of Ammonia-Oxidising Bacterial Communities in Wastewater Treatment Reactors of Different Design Treating Identical Wastewater” FEMS Microbiology Ecology. 43(2), 2003, pp 195-206.
[30]	Ekama, G. A. and Wentzel, M. C. “Nitrogen Removal” Online course on Biological wastewater treatment: Principles, Modeling and Design. Water Research Group Dept of Civil Engineering University of Cape Town. Accessed on 12th June 2019.
[31]	Schmidt, I., “Chemoorganoheterotrophic growth of itrosomonas europaea and Nitrosomonas eutropha”, Current Microbiology 59 (2), 2009, pp. 130-138.