Optimal process pattern for simultaneous sulfur, nitrogen and carbon removal.

Denitrifying sulfide removal (DSR) process incorporates interactions between autotrophic and heterotrophic denitrifiers and reveals difficulty to achieve high removal rate of nitrogen and sulfur in practice. We compared the DSR performance of an expanded granular sludge bed (EGSB) reactor and an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor, both fed with wastewaters comprising sulfide, nitrate and acetate. The EGSB reactor can sustain at higher loading rates than UASB reactor, probably owing to the less elemental sulfur production rate for the latter in operation.