Nitrification is an important part of activated sludge wastewater treatment processes in view of the severe effluent discharge standards for nitrogen (N) that are nowadays imposed by legislation. Several on-line analyzers have been developed to achieve better monitoring and control of biological N removal processes. In this paper, the results of on-line experiments on a pilot-scale activated sludge plant with a recently developed titrimetric sensor are described. Based on a titration of an activated sludge sample, it was possible to estimate the ammonium N (NH4+-N) concentration in the activated sludge, without the need for any sample pretreatment. The NH4+-N concentrations obtained with the titration method were consistent with the NH4+-N concentrations measured with an on-line analyzer, which was operated on the effluent of the pilot plant. Contrary to chemical on-line NH4+-N analyzers, the titration method provides data about the nitrification rate of the activated sludge.
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