WERF's Nutrient Challenge Advances the State of the Practice in the Design and Operations of Nutrient Removal Facilities

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results to date of eight projects being conducted under the 5-year Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) Nutrient Removal Challenge that are deemed of particular relevance to designers and operators of water resource recovery facilities that incorporate nutrient removal and/or recovery. Design-oriented project topics covered include establishment of facility performance and reliability criteria, incorporation of uncertainty evaluations, membrane bioreactors design guidelines for low nutrient effluent applications, and effectively controlling simultaneous nitrification and denitrification. Operational-focused project topics include external carbon evaluation protocol development, use of online nitrogen analyzers for process control, documentation of the operational challenges and approaches needed for cold and wet weather events, and considerations for tertiary phosphorus removal and use of fermenters for biological phosphorus removal. The emphasis of this paper is to present for each of the highlighted projects the knowledge gap which it is intended to breach, the corresponding study methodologies employed and the results obtained, but perhaps more importantly, the "So What" in terms of the relevance these research findings will have for the nutrient removal and recovery facility design or operations practitioner.