Feasibility study of a new approach to removal of nitrates from groundwater by Biological Denitrification

The removal of nitrate is essential for water contaminated with nitrate before being utilized, since a large amount of nitrate in drinking water often causes a disease called methemoglobinemia and other health disorders such as hypertension, increased infant mortality, goiter, stomach cancer, thyroid disorder, cytogenetic defects and birth defects. Hence nitrate removal is an important aspect of present day's wastewater treatment process. Physical and chemical processes such as reverse osmosis, ion exchange, electro dialysis and chemical denitrification have been developed for nitrate removal from water. These techniques are effective in removing nitrate from contaminated water; they are very expensive for pilot scale operation with a limited potential application. Owing to these limitations in the removal of nitrate from water and/or wastewater, the most versatile and widely used technology is biological denitrification. Hence in this research work, feasibility study was carried out for removing nitrate from ground water by biological denitrification with optimum amount of carbon source under anoxic condition.