Biological Denitrification Of Nitrate Contaminated ‎groundwater With Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor ‎

In recent years, the massive and uncontrolled use of fertilizer in ‎agriculture has increased the level of nitrate in groundwater up ‎to make this strategic and valuable source of water useless or not ‎convenient for drinking water purpose. Several processes have ‎been tested to remove nitrate from groundwater and although ‎efficient, they require high capital as well as management costs. ‎Biological processes represent a valid and low cost alternative to ‎remove nitrate from water. This paper, actually, presents the ‎preliminary and encouraging results of the start-up and ‎operating of a bench scale 1.8L Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor ‎‎(MBBR) to remove biologically nitrate. Kaldnes K1were used as ‎biofilm carrier and the reactor was fed with synthetic water ‎simulating a typical groundwater with different concentrations of ‎nitrate, i.e. NO3N ranging from 30 to 60 mg/L. Acetate was ‎added as carbon source.‎