Green and Sustainable Treatment of Urine Wastewater with a Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactor for Space Applications

Abstract

Sustainability has been a concern of survival for future long-term manned space missions. Therefore, the wastewater generated by the crew members, containing urine and hygiene wastewater, should be treated with appropriate biological processes to promote recycling efficiency. In this study, we developed a membrane-aerated biofilm reactor (MABR) that could achieve up to 96% total organic carbon (TOC) removal efficiency and up to 82% denitrification efficiency for an influent with 370–390 mg/L TOC and 500–600 mg/L total nitrogen (TN) without additional carbon source or sludge discharge. The nitrogen removal rate was about 100 mg N L−1 d−1. Metagenomic analysis indicated the presence of a variety of nitrifying, denitrifying, and anammox bacteria in the microbial community and existence of functional genes in nitrification, denitrification, and anammox pathways.

Resource-efficient nitrogen removal from source separated urine with partial nitritation/anammox in a membrane aerated biofilm reactor

“…The obtained NRRs are within the range of typical volumetric (between 0.3-2.0 mg N L -1 d -1 (Pellicer-Nàcher et al, 2010; Sliekers et al, 2003; Vlaeminck et al, 2009)) and membrane area specific (1500-2500 mg N m -2 d -1 (Gilmore et al, 2013)) rates for PN/A in sidestream conditions, at high (>25°C) temperatures. Compared to previous work of PN/A on urine, the rates and efficiencies obtained are more than double and maintained for much longer than previous work (Bürgmann et al, 2011; Zhan et al, 2022).…”

“…and membrane area specific (1500-2500 mg N m -2 d -1 (Gilmore et al, 2013)) rates for PN/A in sidestream conditions, at high (>25 o C) temperatures. Compared to previous work of PN/A on urine, the rates and efficiencies obtained are more than double and maintained for much longer than previous work (Bürgmann et al, 2011;Zhan et al, 2022).…”

“…Consequently, PN/A in MABR was widely reported successfully in lab scale on different streams (Dong et al, 2009; Gong et al, 2007; Sun et al, 2009) even on full scale (Bunse et al, 2020). Whilst nitrification is already tested in a lab-scale MABR on urine (Paepe et al, 2020), the use of PN/A was only reported once and obtained low rates, uncompetitive to N/DN (up to 0.4 g N L -1 d -1 ) (Zhan et al, 2022) on diluted urine, whilst the technology has never been established on undiluted urine.…”

Resource-Efficient Nitrogen Removal from Source-Separated Urine with Partial Nitritation/Anammox in a Membrane-Aerated Biofilm Reactor

“…The obtained NRRs are within the range of typical volumetric (between 0.3 and 2.0 mg N L –1 d –1 − ) and membrane area-specific (1500–2500 mg N m –2 d –1 ) rates for PN/A in side-stream conditions, at high (>25 °C) temperatures. Compared to previous works of PN/A on urine, the rates and efficiencies obtained are more than double and maintained for much longer. ,, …”

“…Consequently, PN/A in an MABR was widely reported in lab scale on different streams − even on full scale . While nitrification is already tested in a lab-scale MABR on urine (De Paepe et al), the use of PN/A on urine in an MABR was only reported at low rates on diluted urine, uncompetitive to N/DN (up to 0.4 g N L –1 d –1 ). , …”