Nitrous oxide emissions of a mesh separated single stage deammonification reactor.

It is widely accepted that partial nitrification by ANAMMOX has the potential to become one of the key processes in wastewater treatment. However, large greenhouse gas emissions have been panobserved in many cases. A novel mesh separated reactor, developed to allow continuous operation of deammonification at smaller scale without external biomass selection, was compared to a conventional single-chamber deammonification sequencing batch reactor (SBR), where both were equally-sized pilot-scale reactors. The mesh reactor consisted of an aerated and an anoxic zone separated by a mesh. The resulting differences in the structure of the microbial community were detected by next-generation sequencing. When both systems were operated in a sequencing batch mode, both systems had comparable nitrous oxide emission factors in the range of 4% to 5% of the influent nitrogen load. A significant decrease was observed after switching from sequencing batch mode to continuous operation.

Uncoupling the solids retention times of flocs and granules in mainstream deammonification: A screen as effective out-selection tool for nitrite oxidizing bacteria.

This study focused on a physical separator in the form of a screen to out-select nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) for mainstream sewage treatment. This separation relied on the principle that the NOB prefer to grow in flocs, while anammox bacteria (AnAOB) reside in granules. Two types of screens (vacuum and vibrating) were tested for separating these fractions. The vibrating screen was preferred due to more moderate normal forces and additional tangential forces, better balancing retention efficiency of AnAOB granules (41% of the AnAOB activity) and washout of NOB (92% activity washout). This operation resulted in increased NOB out-selection (AerAOB/NOB ratio of 2.3) and a total nitrogen removal efficiency of 70% at influent COD/N ratio of 1.4. An effluent total nitrogen concentration <10mgN/L was achieved using this novel approach combining biological selection with physical separation, opening up the path towards energy positive sewage treatment.

Impact of carbon to nitrogen ratio and aeration regime on mainstream deammonification.

While deammonification of high-strength wastewater in the sludge line of sewage treatment plants has become well established, the potential cost savings spur the development of this technology for mainstream applications. This study aimed at identifying the effect of aeration and organic carbon on the deammonification process. Two 10 L sequencing bath reactors with different aeration frequencies were operated at 25°C. Real wastewater effluents from chemically enhanced primary treatment and high-rate activated sludge process were fed into the reactors with biodegradable chemical oxygen demand/nitrogen (bCOD/N) of 2.0 and 0.6, respectively. It was found that shorter aerobic solids retention time (SRT) and higher aeration frequency gave more advantages for aerobic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AerAOB) than nitrite oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in the system. From the kinetics study, it is shown that the affinity for oxygen is higher for NOB than for AerAOB, and higher dissolved oxygen set-point could decrease the affinity of both AerAOB and NOB communities. After 514 days of operation, it was concluded that lower organic carbon levels enhanced the activity of anoxic ammonium-oxidizing bacteria (AnAOB) over denitrifiers. As a result, the contribution of AnAOB to nitrogen removal increased from 40 to 70%. Overall, a reasonably good total removal efficiency of 66% was reached under a low bCOD/N ratio of 2.0 after adaptation.

Expanding DEMON Sidestream Deammonification Technology Towards Mainstream Application.

A cross-Atlantic R&D-cooperation involving three large utilities investigated the feasibility of mainstream deammonification-the application of partial nitritation/anammox for full-plant treatment of municipal wastewater at ambient temperatures. Two major process components have been implemented, 1) bioaugmentation of aerobic- and anaerobic ammonia oxidizers (AOB and AMX) from the DEMON-sidestream sludge liquor treatment to the mainstream and 2) implementation of hydrocyclones to select for anammox granules and retain them in the system. Different operation modes have been tested at laboratory- and pilot-scale in order to promote the short-cut (more direct anammox route) in nitrogen removal metabolism. At the full-scale installation at Strass WWTP, stable repression of nitrite oxidizing biomass (NOB) has been achieved for several months. Significant anammox enrichment in the mainstream has been monitored while high efficiency in the sidestream-process has been maintained (96% annual average ammonia removal).

Characterizing the metabolic trade-off in Nitrosomonas europaea in response to changes in inorganic carbon supply.

The link between the nitrogen and one-carbon cycles forms the metabolic basis for energy and biomass synthesis in autotrophic nitrifying organisms, which in turn are crucial players in engineered nitrogen removal processes. To understand how autotrophic nitrifying organisms respond to inorganic carbon (IC) conditions that could be encountered in engineered partially nitrifying systems, we investigated the response of one of the most extensively studied model ammonia oxidizing bacteria, Nitrosomonas europaea (ATCC19718), to three IC availability conditions: excess gaseous and excess ionic IC supply (40× stoichiometric requirement), excess gaseous IC supply (4× stoichiometric requirement in gaseous form only), and limiting IC supply (0.25× stoichiometric requirement). We found that, when switching from excess gaseous and excess ionic IC supply to excess gaseous IC supply, N. europaea chemostat cultures demonstrated an acclimation period that was characterized by transient decreases in the ammonia removal efficiency and transient peaks in the specific oxygen uptake rate. Limiting IC supply led to permanent reactor failures (characterized by biomass washout and failure of ammonia removal) that were preceded by similar decreases in the ammonia removal efficiency and peaks in the specific oxygen uptake rate. Notably, both excess gaseous IC supply and limiting IC supply elicited a previously undocumented increase in nitric and nitrous oxide emissions. Further, gene expression patterns suggested that excess gaseous IC supply and limiting IC supply led to consistent up-regulation of ammonia respiration genes and carbon assimilation genes. Under these conditions, interrogation of the N. europaea proteome revealed increased levels of carbon fixation and transport proteins and decreased levels of ammonia oxidation proteins (active in energy synthesis pathways). Together, the results indicated that N. europaea mobilized enhanced IC scavenging pathways for biosynthesis and turned down respiratory pathways for energy synthesis, when challenged with excess gaseous IC supply and limiting IC supply.

Anaerobic model for high-solids or high-temperature digestion - additional pathway of acetate oxidation.

Current anaerobic digestion models cannot properly simulate processes that are operated under high solids concentrations or high temperatures. A modification to existing models has been implemented by adding important missing degradation pathways, to accommodate these systems without artificially recalibrating the model parameters. Specifically, we implemented the alternate acetate oxidizing mechanism that is more tolerant to ammonia than the standard aceticlastic pathway. Inhibition values were estimated and an empirical function has been used to apply ammonia inhibition. The model also relates metabolic activity to un-ionised species such as undissociated acetic acid as substrate (although not obligatory for all organisms) and unionised ammonia as inhibitor. The model relies on an equilibrium chemistry module (e.g. including the phosphate buffer), resulting in more accurate pH predictions, which is crucial for proper modeling of CO2 and NH3 stripping. Calibration results from three case-studies modeling thermal hydrolysis and subsequent digestion of sludge are presented.

Going for mainstream deammonification from bench to full scale for maximized resource efficiency.

A three-pronged coordinated research effort was undertaken by cooperating utilities at three different experimental scales investigating bioaugmentation, enrichment and performance of anammox organisms in mainstream treatment. Two major technological components were applied: density-based sludge wasting by a selective cyclone to retain anammox granules and intermittent aeration to repress nitrite oxidizers. This paper evaluates process conditions and operation modes to direct more nitrogen to the resource-saving metabolic route of deammonification.

Models for nitrification process design: one or two AOB populations?

Models for engineering design of nitrifying systems use one ammonia oxidizer biomass (AOB) state variable. A simple extension using two AOB populations allows a more accurate prediction of nitrification systems at switching process environments. These two AOB subpopulations are characterized by two different sets of kinetic parameters. Selection pressure and competition between the two functional AOB populations are determined by process conditions as demonstrated by three case studies: Case study I describes dynamics of two AOB populations showing different temperature sensitivities (modified Arrhenius term on growth and decay) when bioaugmented from the warm sidestream treatment environment to the cold mainstream and vice-versa. Case study II investigates competition between fast growing micro-strategists and k-strategists adjusted to low ammonia levels depending on the internal mixed liquor recycle rate (IMLR). Case study III shows that AOB transferred from the waste activated sludge of an SBR to the parallel continuous flow system with different decay kinetics can overgrow or coexist with the original population.

Syntrophy of aerobic and anaerobic ammonia oxidisers.

Deammonification is known as an efficient and resource saving sidestream process option to remove the nitrogen load from sludge liquors. The transfer of the intermediate product nitrite between both syntrophic groups of organisms - aerobic and anaerobic ammonia oxidizers (AOB) - appears very sensitive to process conditions such as temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO) and operating nitrite level. Growth kinetics for aerobic and anaerobic AOBs differ by one order of magnitude and require an adequate selection of sludge retention time. This paper provides measurement- and model-based results on how selected sludge wasting impacts population dynamics in a suspended growth deammonification system. Anammox enrichment up to a doubled portion in mixed liquor solids can substantially improve process stability in difficult conditions. A case-study on low temperature operations outlines two possible strategies to balance syntrophic consumption of ammonium and nitrite.

Quantitative and qualitative effects of bioaugmentation on ammonia oxidisers at a two-step WWTP.

Large waste water treatment plants (WWTP) often operate nitrification in two different process environments: the cold-dilute sewage is treated in the mainstream nitrification/denitrification system, while the high strength ammonia liquors from sludge dewatering are treated in a separate high temperature reactor (SBR). This study investigates transfer from nitrifier biomass into a two-stage WWTP, commonly referred to as bioaugmentation. Besides the quantitation of ammonia oxidising bacteria (AOB), community differences were analysed with two techniques, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and real-time PCR melt curve analysis. It was shown that, without bioaugmentation, two distinct AOB communities establish in the mainstream and in the SBR, respectively. A gradual shift of the two AOB communities with increasing pump rates between the systems could be demonstrated. These molecular findings support process engineering experience, that cycling of waste activated sludge improves the ability of AOB to adapt to different process environments.

Systematic comparison of mechanical and thermal sludge disintegration technologies.

This study presents a systematic comparison and evaluation of sewage sludge pre-treatment by mechanical and thermal techniques. Waste activated sludge (WAS) was pre-treated by separate full scale Thermo-Pressure-Hydrolysis (TDH) and ball milling facilities. Then the sludge was processed in pilot-scale digestion experiments. The results indicated that a significant increase in soluble organic matter could be achieved. TDH and ball milling pre-treatment could offer a feasible treatment method to efficiently disintegrate sludge and enhance biogas yield of digestion. The TDH increased biogas production by ca. 75% whereas ball milling allowed for an approximately 41% increase. The mechanisms of pre-treatment were investigated by numerical modeling based on Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1 (ADM1) in the MatLab/SIMBA environment. TDH process induced advanced COD-solubilisation (COD(soluble)/COD(total)=43%) and specifically complete destruction of cell mass which is hardly degradable in conventional digestion. While the ball mill technique achieved a lower solubilisation rate (COD(soluble)/COD(total)=28%) and only a partial destruction of microbial decay products. From a whole-plant prospective relevant release of ammonia and formation of soluble inerts have been observed especially from thermal hydrolysis.

Benefits and drawbacks of thermal pre-hydrolysis for operational performance of wastewater treatment plants.

This paper presents benefits and potential drawbacks of thermal pre-hydrolysis of sewage sludge from an operator's prospective. The innovative continuous Thermo-Pressure-Hydrolysis Process (TDH) has been tested in full-scale at Zirl wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), Austria, and its influence on sludge digestion and dewatering has been evaluated. A mathematical plant-wide model with application of the IWA Activated Sludge Model No.1 (ASM1) and the Anaerobic Digestion Model No.1 (ADM1) has been used for a systematic comparison of both scenarios--operational plant performance with and without thermal pre-hydrolysis. The impacts of TDH pre-hydrolysis on biogas potential, dewatering performance and return load in terms of ammonia and inert organic compounds (Si) have been simulated by the calibrated model and are displayed by Sankey mass flow figures. Implementation of full scale TDH process provided higher anaerobic degradation efficiency with subsequent increased biogas production (+75-80%) from waste activated sludge (WAS). Both effects--enhanced degradation of organic matter and improved cake's solids content from 25.2 to 32.7% TSS--promise a reduction in sludge disposal costs of about 25%. However, increased ammonia release and generation of soluble inerts Si was observed when TDH process was introduced.

Prediction of thermal hydrolysis pretreatment on anaerobic digestion of waste activated sludge.

Thermal hydrolysis is known for an efficient sludge disintegration capability to enhance biogas potential--but to which extent? Obviously, residual VSS concentration in digested sludge gives not sufficient information to predict additional biogas potential. In this paper, different types of waste activated sludge (WAS) were pre-hydrolysed by a full-scale Thermo-Pressure-Hydrolysis Process (Thermo-Druck-Hydrolyse, TDH) and break-down mechanisms on specific organic compounds were investigated. The IWA Anaerobic Digestion Model No.1 (ADM1) has been used for a systematic analysis of monitoring data gained from experimental work. The TDH process combined with anaerobic digestion can be well described by a modified ADM1 model that includes an X(P)-fraction (inactivated aerobic biomass and their decay products). More rapid and more complete degradation of TDH-treated sludge is represented by calibrated disintegration rate and disintegration factors, while biokinetic parameters of acetogenesis and methanogenesis show no sensitivity. TDH process impacts mainly biomass and decay products while inerts Xi already contained in the raw wastewater are hardly converted. Final concentration of soluble inerts in digestion effluent has been increased from 2% to 9% of influent COD due to thermal hydrolysis. An increase in biogas generation (ca. +80%) and in ammonia release (ca. +75%) can be explained by complete degradation of cell mass.

Control of GHG emission at the microbial community level.

All organic material eventually is decomposed by microorganisms, and considerable amounts of C and N end up as gaseous metabolites. The emissions of greenhouse relevant gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides largely depend on physico-chemical conditions like substrate quality or the redox potential of the habitat. Manipulating these conditions has a great potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Such options are known from farm and waste management, as well as from wastewater treatment. In this paper examples are given how greenhouse gas production might be reduced by regulating microbial processes. Biogas production from manure, organic wastes, and landfills are given as examples how methanisation may be used to save fossil fuel. Methane oxidation, on the other hand, might alleviate the problem of methane already produced, or the conversion of aerobic wastewater treatment to anaerobic nitrogen elimination through the anaerobic ammonium oxidation process might reduce N2O release to the atmosphere. Changing the diet of ruminants, altering soil water potentials or a change of waste collection systems are other measures that affect microbial activities and that might contribute to a reduction of carbon dioxide equivalents being emitted to the atmosphere.

Solar-thermic sewage sludge treatment in extreme alpine environments.

In the framework of a program for environmental protection conducted by the German mountaineers' club (DAV) problems emerging from residual solids accumulating in on-site wastewater treatment plants of mountain refuges were investigated. To handle these problems in an ecologically and economically reasonable way two devices for solar-supported treatment of sludge and bio-solids have been developed. These units support gravity-filtration and evaporation of liquid sludge as well as thermal acceleration of composting processes. Two solar sludge dryers were installed and operated without external energy supply at alpine refuges treating primary and secondary sludge, respectively. Batch-filling during the season could increase load capacity and a total solids concentration of up to 40% could be achieved before discharge at the beginning of the next season. The promising results from the solar sludge dryer encouraged for the development of a solar composter. The period of temperature levels suitable for composting biosolids in mountain areas can be extended considerably by application of this technology--measured temperature distribution indicated no freezing at all.

Elemental balance based methodology to establish reaction stoichiometry in environmental modeling.

Kinetic models in activated sludge, anaerobic digestion and other environmental modeling fields rely on the proper formulation of stoichiometric coefficients. Elemental balancing provides a simple and rigorous way to establish the stoichiometric coefficients of reactions represented in the Gujer matrix. The deduction of these coefficients is frequently trivial, from basic mass balancing considerations. In more complex cases, such as the Anammox growth reaction, rigorous elemental balancing is required to establish the proper formulation. This paper demonstrates the methodology based on a simple aerobic heterotrophic growth reaction where stoichiometry coefficients (such as the (1-Y(H))/Y(H) term for oxygen) are well known. In the second step the methodology is applied for the Anammox growth reaction. The fraction of N(2) gas in current models originates from the NH(4)+ and the NO(2)- electron donor/acceptor pair in equal proportion. This paper demonstrates that this stoichiometry is a simplification leading to elemental balance errors. The proper stoichiometric coefficients are derived.

Development and implementation of a robust deammonification process.

Deammonification represents a short-cut in the N-metabolism pathway and comprises 2 steps: about half the amount of ammonia is oxidised to nitrite and then residual ammonia and nitrite is anaerobically transformed to elementary nitrogen. Implementation of the pH-controlled DEMON process for deammonification of reject water in a single-sludge SBR system at the WWTP Strass (Austria) contributed essentially to energy self-sufficiency of the plant. The specific energy demand of the side-stream process equals 1.16 kWh per kg ammonia nitrogen removed comparing to about 6.5 kWh of mainstream treatment. Has this resource saving technology already approached state of the art? Deammonification has been operated in full-scale now for almost 3 years without interruption reaching annual ammonia removal rates beyond 90%. Biomass enrichment and DEMON-start-up in Strass took a period of 2.5 years whereas start-up period at the WWTP Glarnerland (Switzerland) was reduced to 50 days due to transfer of substantial amounts of seed sludge.

Model-based design of an agricultural biogas plant: application of anaerobic digestion model no.1 for an improved four chamber scheme.

Different digestion technologies for various substrates are addressed by the generic process description of Anaerobic Digestion Model No. 1. In the case of manure or agricultural wastes a priori knowledge about the substrate in terms of ADM1 compounds is lacking and influent characterisation becomes a major issue. The actual project has been initiated for promotion of biogas technology in agriculture and for expansion of profitability also to rather small capacity systems. In order to avoid costly individual planning and installation of each facility a standardised design approach needs to be elaborated. This intention pleads for bio kinetic modelling as a systematic tool for process design and optimisation. Cofermentation under field conditions was observed, quality data and flow data were recorded and mass flow balances were calculated. In the laboratory different substrates have been digested separately in parallel under specified conditions. A configuration of four ADM1 model reactors was set up. Model calibration identified disintegration rate, decay rates for sugar degraders and half saturation constant for sugar as the three most sensitive parameters showing values (except the latter) about one order of magnitude higher than default parameters. Finally, the model is applied to the comparison of different reactor configurations and volume partitions. Another optimisation objective is robustness and load flexibility, i.e. the same configuration should be adaptive to different load situations only by a simple recycle control in order to establish a standardised design.

Description of nitrogen incorporation and release in ADM1.

ADM1 represents a universally applicable biokinetic model for the mathematical description of anaerobic digestion of different types of organic substrates. Digestion of particulate composites is described as a five-stage process involving disintegration, hydrolysis, acidogenesis, acetogenesis and methanogenesis, of which the last three process steps are represented by growth kinetics of the specific degrading biomass. Decay of the produced biomass according to ADM1 is depicted by a recycle mass flux to the composite particulate substrate. Consequently two different actions are lumped into one process describing both conversion of feed substrate (depending primarily on influent characterisation) and generation of decay products (depending on digestion performance). In this presentation the introduction of a separate compound of inert decay products in analogy to ASM1 is suggested. Model calibration of separately monitored digestion of primary and secondary sludge (nitrogen content 0.030 g N/g TSS and 0.051 g N/g TSS, respectively) reveals the advantage of a clear distinction of disintegration and decay. The fate of nitrogen in the course of incorporation and release (0.016 g N/g TSS compared to 0.028 g N/g TSS) during digestion processes is comprehensible and the final ammonia concentration in the rejection water becomes predictable.

Solved upscaling problems for implementing deammonification of rejection water.

So far, extremely efficient metabolic pathways for nitrogen removal exclusively by autotrophic organisms are well established in scientific literature but not in practice. This paper presents results from the successful implementation of rejection water deammonification in a full-scale single sludge system at the WWTP Strass, Austria. Anaerobic ammonia oxidising biomass has been accumulated during a 2.5 year start-up period when the reactor size was gradually scaled up in the steps. The pH-controlled deammonification system (DEMON) has reached a design capacity of eliminating approximately 300 kg of nitrogen per day. Energy savings outperform expectations, decreasing the mean specific demand for compressed air from 109 m3(kg N)(-1) to 29 m3(kg N)(-1). Dominance of autotrophic metabolism is confirmed by organic effluent loads topping influent loads.