NITROGEN REMOVAL AND POLYHYDROXYALKANOATES ACCUMULATION VIA TWO-STAGE PROCESS

Ahmad Idi^a, Zubairu Gaddafi Jimeta^b. Audu Sanusi Kiri^b, Victor Onuche Ikani^b

ABSTRACT

The recovery of value added products is becoming an important aspect of wastewater treatment process. Hence this study exploits the recovery of microbial biomass during nitrogen removal and evaluates its potential application in PHA production via two stage processes. The concentration of nitrate, ammonium and PHA were determined by cadmium reduction method, Nessler method, and percentage respectively. The results showed that at the concentration of 92mg/L, 62% of NH₄^– N was removed and 2.7 g/L of DCW was obtained which accumulated 72% of PHA. At the concentration of 72mg/L, 74% of NO₃^–was removed and 3.4 g/L of DCW was obtained which accumulated 62% of PHA. The results also showed that nitrogen removal is related to concentration, DCW and PHA accumulations for both NO₃^–and NH₄^– N.  Based on the study, the feasibility of the integrating nitrogen removal and PHA accumulation via two-stage was established.

Keywords: Nitrogen, Polyhydroxyalkanoates, Ammonium, Photosynthetic bacteria