Transitioning Deammonification from Sidestream to Main-Stream Treatment: Long-Term Comparison of Integrated Fixed Film Activated Sludge and Moving Bed Biofilm Reactors with Polyurethane Foam Carriers at Lab-Scale

Deammonification, which is based on partial nitritation and anammox (PN/A), is a well-established sidestream treatment for nitrogen removal. However, transferring deammonification to mainstream wastewater treatment remains challenging due to low temperatures, the need to retain slow-growing anammox bacteria (AnAOB), and their competition for nitrite with nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) and heterotrophic denitrifiers. This work investigates cubic polyurethane foam carriers to promote growth and