Quantification of nitrous oxide emissions during biological nitrogen removal from waste water due to nitrifier denitrification - a systems comparison.

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There is strong evidence that the biological removal of nitrogen from waste water emits considerable amounts of nitrous oxide (N2O) gas. Up to 80 per cent of removed nitrogen is emitted in the form of N2O, which is a strong greenhouse gas and ozone depletant. This fact is well reported for treatment of agricultural wastes but not for the treatment of communal/industrial waste water. This difference between reports on agricultural and commercial waste water treatment may be due to the fact that, conventionally, the emission of nitrous oxide is seen to be cause by different bacteria involved in the water treatment process. Inventories of gaseous emissions from commercial treatment works thus may have missed out a potentially significant source of this gas. The proposed research aims to investigate, under controlled conditions in a laboratory, whether the treatment of communal/industrial waste water for nitrogen removal can principally lead to significant releases of nitrous oxide. Comparison between these results and those available for the agricultural sector will establish if there are generic differences in N2O emission potential between these two sectors. The results will be used in the formulation of a strategy for further research into i) the quanitification and abatement of N2O from industrial/communal waste waters or ii) further reduction of N2O from agricultural waste water treatment, respectively.