https://www.mdu.se/

mdu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Impact of seeding on the start-up of one-stage deammonification MBBRs
Purac AB, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-8869-6513
Lunds universitet, Sweden.
Leibniz Universitaet Hannover, Geramany.
Purac AB, Sweden.
Show others and affiliations
2014 (English)In: Environmental technology, ISSN 0959-3330, E-ISSN 1479-487X, Vol. 35, no 22, p. 2767-2773Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Treating nitrogen-rich reject water from anaerobically digested sludge with deammonification has become a very beneficial side stream process. One common technique is the one-stage moving bed bioreactors (MBBRs), which in comparison with the other deammonification techniques can be started up without seeding anammox bacteria. This study investigated the impact of biofilm seeding on the start-up of one-stage deammonification MBBRs. Two lab-scale reactors were run in parallel with partial nitritation for 56 days until 11% of the carrier area in one reactor was replaced with fully developed deammonification biofilm to work as the seeding material. The seeded reactor started nitrogen reduction immediately up to a plateau of 1.3gNm−2 d−1; after another 54 days on day 110, the reduction significantly increased. At the same time, the non-seeded reactor also started to reduce nitrogen due to deammonification. The development was followed with both nitrogen analyses and fluorescence in situ hybridization analyses. On day 134, the biofilm in both reactors contained >90% anammox bacteria and reached maximum nitrogen removal rates of 7.5 and 5.6gNm−2 d−1 in the seeded and non-seeded reactor, respectively. Over 80% of the inorganic nitrogen was reduced. In conclusion, the seeding did not contribute to a shorter start-up time or the achieved anammox enrichment, although it did contribute to a partial, immediate nitrogen reduction. The boundary conditions are the most important factors for a successful start-up in a deammonification MBBR system.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2014. Vol. 35, no 22, p. 2767-2773
Keywords [en]
deammonification, anammox, MBBR, reject water, seeding, start-up
National Category
Water Treatment
Research subject
Energy- and Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-43254DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2014.920421ISI: 000341582000002Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-84906784602OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mdh-43254DiVA, id: diva2:1307185
Available from: 2019-04-26 Created: 2019-04-26 Last updated: 2025-02-10Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Start-up and operational strategies for deammonification plants: - a study with one-stage moving bed biofilm reactors treating reject water
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Start-up and operational strategies for deammonification plants: - a study with one-stage moving bed biofilm reactors treating reject water
2019 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

To limit eutrophication, wastewater treatment plants use biological methods to convert degraded nitrogen to nitrogen gas. Deammonification, or partial nitritation in combination with anammox, has been shown to be an energy efficient process. This process is currently implemented in approximately 150 full-scale plants, and mainly on reject waters, the liquid fraction after dewatering of anaerobic digestion at municipal wastewater treatment plants. Implementation has been impeded by the slow growth of anammox bacteria, and 99% of the full-scale plants using the process have been using different methods to inoculate the process with anammox bacteria from elsewhere. Separate reject water installations, however, have shown high nitrous oxide emissions, which could increase the total carbon footprint.

The objective of this thesis was to develop and validate a start-up concept using the moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) technique applied to reject water, and to investigate how the operational strategies could be optimized to limit potential nitrous oxide emissions. The results show that a one-stage deammonification process based on the MBBR technology with indigenous anammox bacteria originating from the reject water can be set up within a applicable time frame (<100 days). This was validated in two laboratory reactors and in two full-scale studies. Reject water originating from both mesophilic and thermophilic digested sludge was used. Anammox growth and nitrogen reduction were detected with fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and chemical analysis, respectively. The start-up time was 72 days in the laboratory and 120 days in full-scale. In laboratory scale, there was no improvement in start-up time when adding external anammox inoculum. Results from a screening study of seven reject waters and their content of anammox bacteria using qPCR indicated the presence of 104–105 genome units anammox per mL in reject water, which could be sufficient for starting up deammonification plants within an applicable time frame.

A final case study shows the potential of decreasing nitrous oxide emissions when a full-scale plant treating reject water was modified from nitrification/denitrification using a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) to a deammonification process using the MBBR technique. The nitrous oxide emissions decreased from 10% to 0.1–0.7% of total nitrogen load with the change of operation mode. Further optimization by pH set point led to lower emission values. This effect is thought to be linked to the lower aeration ratio and increase in complete denitrification of dissolved nitrous oxide at higher pH.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Västerås: Mälardalen University, 2019
Series
Mälardalen University Press Dissertations, ISSN 1651-4238 ; 290
National Category
Water Treatment
Research subject
Energy- and Environmental Engineering
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-43258 (URN)978-91-7485-427-5 (ISBN)
Public defence
2019-06-10, Delta, Mälardalens högskola, Västerås, 13:15 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Funder
Vinnova, 2015-02422
Available from: 2019-04-26 Created: 2019-04-26 Last updated: 2025-02-10Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Publisher's full textScopushttps://doi.org/10.1080/09593330.2014.920421

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Kanders, Linda
In the same journal
Environmental technology
Water Treatment

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

doi
urn-nbn

Altmetric score

doi
urn-nbn
Total: 159 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf