One-stage deammonification: nitrogen elimination at low costs

Abstract

Biological nitrogen elimination used to purify wastewater with high nitrogen contents can become a major cost factor, in particular when the wastewater in question contains only little amounts of biologically degradable carbon compounds. The use of new biological conversion methods and the application of compact operation technology, however, does allow us to save operation and investment costs. Currently, the focus of scientific interest is on deammonification, that is the direct conversion of ammonia into elementary nitrogen by autotrophic micro-organisms, because in contrast to conventional nitrification/denitrification this method requires considerably smaller amounts not only of carbon, but also of oxygen. Moreover, the use of compact biofilm technology makes it possible to considerably reduce the reaction tank volume. In the following we will present the operation results of both industrial plants and laboratory-scale units for the treatment of wastewater with high nitrogen loads, results which unequivocally show the favourable cost-effectiveness of the mentioned method combination and thus the economic viability inherent in the purposeful industrial utilisation of this technology.

Sustainable nitrogen elimination biotechnologies: A review

“…Detail mechanism on these processes is not well understood yet. The nitrogen loading and conversion are quite low [84][85][86]91].…”

Enhanced process monitoring for wastewater treatment systems

“…In this way, significant aeration cost savings are realized in comparison with conventional complete nitrification. When only half of the ammonia is converted, a combination with an Anammox unit becomes economically interesting, as in the subsequent Anammox treatment step equimolar amounts of ammonia and nitrite are converted to nitrogen gas (Hellinga et al, 1998;van Dongen et al, 2001;Seyfried et al, 2001). In comparison with conventional N-removal, the coupled SHARON and Anammox processes in theory result in a 40% reduction of the stoichiometrically required oxygen while no carbon source needs to be added and a negligible amount of sludge is produced.…”

“…The number of sensor and other data in wastewater treatment and water transport systems has increased almost exponentially over the last few decades (Seyfried et al, 2001;Jeppsson et al, 2002;Olsson and Newel, 1999;Rieger et al, 2003Rieger et al, , 2004Rieger et al, , 2005Vanrolleghem and Lee, 2003;Yoo et al, 2004bYoo et al, , 2006. This does not necessarily mean that the information has increased as much.…”

Operational strategy for a partial nitritation–sequencing batch reactor treating urban landfill leachate to achieve a stable influent for an anammox reactor

“…1 Nitrogen removal has traditionally been achieved by autotrophic nitrification and heterotrophic denitrification. However, in recent years, new technologies have been developed to deal with high nitrogen content wastewater in a more sustainable way.…”