Nitrogen removal for stricter demands

New environmental permits for wastewater treatment plants tend to demand lower effluent concentrations than before.

A VA SYD PROJECT In addition to total nitrogen, very low levels of ammonia nitrogen may be required for new environmental permits, especially when the recipient is a small water body. Such levels can be challenging to achieve based on how the treatment plants are presently designed. This is partly due to that in situations with very high flows, the wastewater is normally bypassed by the biological treatment.

In this project, we investigate how a far-reaching nitrification for low ammonium levels (<0.5 mg/L as yearly average) can be achieved with a compact biofilm pro-cess. The design of a biofilm process is optimized to achieve post-nitrification (after a conventionally designed main biological process) and at the same time treat all wastewater even at peak flow situations.

The project is financed by Sweden Water Research.