Model Based Design of a Novel Process for Nitrogen Removal from Concentrated Flows

Abstract

A new process for biological nitrification was developed that is operated in a single aerated reactor at relatively high temperature and pH. This process, termed SHARON, was designed to achieve substantial ammonia conversion at high reaction rates for relatively concentrated flows, rather than to meet strict effluent standards. First large scale applications that are under construction now, aim at treating reject water from a sludge digestion unit. The SHARON process operates without sludge retention, and ammonium oxidation is stopped at nitrite, which saves on aeration costs. Denitrification is used as a cheap means to control the pH. Under typical conditions, no heating is necessary due to the heat production by the reactions. Overall processing costs are less than 50% of other techniques. This contribution focuses on model development for process design calculations at full scale. Underlying kinetic principles, and especially their pH dependency, are highlighted as well.

Thermophilic biological nitrogen removal in industrial wastewater treatment

“…As expected (Hellinga et al 1999), the oxidation rates of AOB were higher than those of NOB (i.e. 3.3 mgNH 4 -N/gVSS.h and 2.9 mg NO 2 -N/gVSS.h at 35 o C for AOB and NOB, respectively).…”

“…The AMS3 model (Henze et al, 2000), the structure of the nitrification and denitrification model developed by Hellinga et al (1999), and the modified ASM3 model developed by Iacopozzi et al (2007) were adapted to describe the two step nitrification-denitrification processes. However, unlike in ASM3, no storage processes were considered in the anoxic growth kinetics since it has been shown that methanol is not taken up and stored as intracellular polymers but directly consumed instead (Purtschert and Gujer, 1999).…”

“…The satisfactory description of the 2-step nitrificationdenitrification activities was attained through the adjustment of (i) the biomass growth yields on methanol with either nitrate or nitrite as electron acceptors (to 0.48 and 0.33gCOD/gCOD, respectively), (ii) the inclusion of the temperature dependencies of nitrification and denitrification from 35 to 55 o C, and (iii) the adjustment of the anoxic decay rate of heterotrophs (b H,N ) to 0.25d -1 . For other parameters, ASM3 default values were used (Henze et al 2000) with the exception of the biomass growth rates of AOB and NOB that were adjusted to 0.15 and 0.04 d -1 , respectively (as applied by Hellinga et al, 1999).…”

Study on the removal of biodegradable NOM from seawater using biofiltration

“…is the predominant (70%) species in seawater. Furthermore, the amount of nitrate in the outlet of the biofilter is greater than in the inlet due to the biological oxidation of NH 4 + and NO 2 -by the nitrification reactions (Hellinga et al, 1999). Therefore, autotrophic nitrifying bacteria are also present in the filter.…”

Effect of pH and nitrite concentration on nitrite oxidation rate

“…Technologies such as SHARON process (Single reactor High activity Ammonia Removal over Nitrite) (Hellinga et al, 1999) and SHARON-ANAMMOX process (combination of partial nitritation with anaerobic ammonium oxidation) allow removing high ammonia concentrations via the nitrite route (Van Dongen et al, 2001). The SHARON-ANAMMOX concept gets much Manuscript revised Click here to download Manuscript: manuscript_revised.…”