SBIR Phase I: Novel Process Technology for Point-of-Generation Nitrogen Removal from Wastewater

这个小企业创新研究第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是解决人类对环境造成的氮负荷的巨大挑战。一个易于使用和负担得起的系统将针对氮素释放到流域的主要来源：处理来自美国数百万家庭和商业设施的废水的现场系统。需要减轻有害的藻华和防止其他对水生生态系统的破坏性累积影响，这就产生了对现场技术的迫切需求，这些技术可以从源头去除氮。提出的除氮技术是模块化的，适用于处理来自个人家庭、社区系统和商业机构的废水的小型系统。该项目采用了一种创新的生物脱氮工艺，将对其进行验证和优化，以优先应用于农村、城郊和城市环境。该系统机械简单，不产生废物，被动运行，只需最少的维护、能源或消耗品。该项目的结果将有助于解决氮控制的关键挑战，提供一种高效、低成本、可商业化的系统，可用于新系统和改造系统的现场废水处理。第一阶段研究项目的技术目标是设计、建造、现场测试和严格评估一种创新生物反应器系统的各种原型，以去除现场废水中的氮。原型生物反应器将运行和监测数月，以调查其显著的操作特性，并确定有效的设计和处理方案。该生物反应器将在现场条件下处理真实的生活废水。氮分析物将在整个生物反应器系统中进行监测，以描述生物处理对四种氮的影响：有机氮、铵态氮、硝酸盐和亚硝酸盐。生物处理系统对化学和生化需氧量、无机化学参数和其他感兴趣的废水成分的影响也将被阐明。该项目将严格评估总氮去除的有效性以及单个氮去除转化的稳定性和弹性。这项工作将确认脱氮过程的寿命和稳健性，并确定设计和操作参数，以优化一种创新的方法，从现场废水中去除总氮，同时减少氮向环境的释放。原型设计和监测将有助于将结果扩大到全面的生物处理系统。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to address the grand challenge of human-induced nitrogen loading to the environment. An easy-to-use and affordable system will target a major source of nitrogen releases to watersheds: the on-site systems that treat wastewater from millions of households and commercial facilities across the U.S. The need to mitigate harmful algal blooms and prevent other damaging cumulative effects to aquatic ecosystems have created an urgent demand for onsite technologies that remove nitrogen at its source. The proposed nitrogen removal technology is modular and adaptable for use in small-scale systems that treat wastewater from individual homes, community systems and commercial establishments. The project employs an innovative biological nitrogen removal process that that will be verified and optimized for high priority applications in rural, peri-urban, and urban settings. The system is mechanically simple, generates no waste products, and operates passively with minimal maintenance, energy or consumables. The results from this project will help to solve the critical challenge of nitrogen control by providing a highly efficient, low-cost, commercializable system that is practicable for on-site wastewater treatment in new and retrofit systems.The technical objectives of this Phase I research project are to design, construct, field-test, and critically evaluate variant prototypes of an innovative bioreactor system to remove nitrogen from onsite wastewater. Prototype bioreactors will be operated and monitored over multiple months to investigate their salient operational characteristics and define effective design and treatment regimes. The bioreactors will be installed to treat real household wastewater under field conditions. Nitrogen analytes will be monitored across the bioreactor systems to delineate the effects of biotreatment on four nitrogen species: organic nitrogen, ammonium, nitrate and nitrite. The effects of the biotreatment system on chemical and biochemical oxygen demand, inorganic chemical parameters, and other wastewater constituents of interest will also be elucidated. The project will critically evaluate the effectiveness of total nitrogen removal and the stability and resiliency of individual nitrogen removal transformations. The work will confirm the longevity and robustness of the nitrogen removal process and identify design and operating parameters that optimize an innovative approach to remove total nitrogen from on-site wastewater while mitigating nitrogen releases to the environment. Prototype design and monitoring will facilitate scale-up of results to full-scale biotreatment systems.