[Nitrogen removal and N2O emission characteristics during the shortcut simultaneous nitrification and denitrification process].

Complete simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) was achieved in an air lift circulation bioreactor. Based on this condition, the system could be switched to shortcut SND as the free ammonia (FA) concentration was increased with higher influent pH. The nitrogen removal and N2O emission characteristics of the shortcut SND process were investigated and those of the complete SND process were also observed as control. In the shortcut SND process, the average total nitrogen removal and average SND efficiency reached 71.9% and 80.9%, which was 18.0 and 16.8 percents higher than those in the complete SND process, respectively. In addition, the total nitrogen removal rate in the shortcut SND process was 0.11 mg x (L x min)(-1), 1.4 times as high as that in the complete SND process. Although higher nitrogen removal efficiency was obtained in the shortcut SND process, the mean N2O conversion rate reached 57.1% and the average N2O accumulated emission amount was approximately 4 times higher than that in the complete SND process. The results also indicated that the increase of NO2- -N concentration in the reactor should be responsible for the remarkable enhancement of N2O emission.