Evaluate the Performance of Sugarcane Bagasse as a Carbonic Source Required in the Design of Denitrification Substrates

Abstract

Nitaret is one of the stable components of nitrogen in the nature. Nitrate compounds are highly soluble and can easily imported to the surface and groundwaters and finally lead to be polluted of them. Denitrification is one of permanent removal methods of nitrate from terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. In this study, denitrification process and nitrate removal rate changes with time in a column experimental study was evaluated on two types of denitrification beds, first type was a mixture of bagasse and soil (30 % of the volume of bagasse and 70 % of the volume of soil) and second type was only soil without bagasse. All experiments were performed under saturation conditions (anaerobic conditions). The influent nitrate concentraion to the all beds was considered an average of 45 mg/l. With sampling of inflow and outflow of the columns, nitrate removal changes were assessed over a period of three months. The maximum percentage of nitrate removal in columns with mixture of soil and bagasse were occurred in the end of the experiment (94%) and in columns without the bagasse were ocured in the first of the experiment (89%).The results showed that sugar cane bagasse as a carbonic source can be very useful in the design of carbonic filters and denitrification walls for nitrate favorable removal of inlet concentrated solutions. Overall, the results confirm that the denitrification process is one of the main mechanisms of biological nitrate removal from anaerobic enviroments.

Keywords

• sugarcane bagasse
• denitrification bed
• actual hydraulic retention time
• nitrate