Development of an innovative multi-zone treatment system for nitrogen-rich wastewaters using anammox process

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The proposed project addresses the removal of nitrogen, an important pollutant of surface waters and groundwater, from industrial and agricultural wastewaters by an energy-efficient and economical method that uses 50% less oxygen and produces considerably less sludge and greenhouse gases compared to the existing technologies. The proposed treatment system uses a multi-zone technology, called BioCAST, along with a special series of aerobic-anaerobic processes known as partial nitrification-anammox to remove nitrogen without the need for organic carbon. The partial nitrification (PN) of ammonia under aerobic condition produces nitrite that is used in the subsequent anammox process to remove the remaining ammonia under anaerobic condition. Despite the sustainability and economical advantages of partial nitrification-anammox processes, their development has been slowed down because of the very low growth rate of bacteria involved in these processes that poses a challenge to the application of conventional technologies. Accordingly, a great amount of effort has been focused in recent years on the development of treatment systems that offer stable and prolonged operation of partial nitrification-anammox processes by using immobilized microorganisms in biofilm reactors, or increasing the retention of suspended or granulated bacteria. BioCAST technology benefits from a special design and operation strategy that retains a high concentration of both suspended and immobilized microorganisms, and enables treatment under partial oxidation and anoxic conditions. The main objective of this project is to develop a technology for the optimum operating conditions for nitrogen removal by the PN-anammox processes. The performance of the developed system for the treatment of effluents of anaerobic digestion processes will be demonstrated. The research work to meet the objectives of this project will focus on technology development and performance evaluation of a laboratory-scale treatment system at the Environmental Engineering laboratories of Concordia University. The Concordia research team and the Company have the capacity to lead this project and to develop the technology for industrial applications.