Nitrogen removal from wastewater with anammox for low resource usage and small carbon footprint
Research Project, 2015
– 2017
With anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox), efficient nitrogen removal from wastewater with low energy usage and small carbon footprint can be achieved. Anammox bacteria remove nitrogen without consuming organic carbon, in contrast to denitrifying bacteria used in conventional treatment. Hence, more biogas can be produced from the organic carbon using anammox at wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). Together with decreased needs for aeration this reduces the total energy usage and the carbon footprint considerably. Also decreased greenhouse emissions and lower economic costs are expected. Today, anammox is used for treatment of concentrated warm side streams, but not the main stream of wastewater, which represents 80-85% of all nitrogen at WWTPs. The challenge is to achieve high process rates and suppress unwanted microbial activities in the colder and more dilute main stream. In this project, the effects of environmental factors typical for main stream wastewater are investigated with respect to the process performance and the activity, diversity and composition of the microbial communities in order to develop operational strategies.
Participants
Frank Persson (contact)
Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Water Environment Technology
Britt-Marie Wilen
Chalmers, Architecture and Civil Engineering, Water Environment Technology
Collaborations
University of Gothenburg
Gothenburg, Sweden
Funding
Formas
Project ID: 2014-1528
Funding Chalmers participation during 2015–2017
Related Areas of Advance and Infrastructure
Sustainable development
Driving Forces
Building Futures (2010-2018)
Areas of Advance
Energy
Areas of Advance