Innovative technologies & processes enabling energy neutral wastewater treatment

多年来，废水处理目标变得更加严格。这些目标要求更多的能源和更高的废水处理运行成本。这些不断增加的成本，加上新出现的可持续性要求，正在推动研究人员、行业和公用事业公司提出更有效的废水管理方法。主流废水处理方式发生了转变；缔约方现在强调废水能源回收和同时减少能源消耗。这一转变使污水处理厂能够在达到处理目标的同时实现能源中性。尽管有广泛的努力和快速的技术进步，但由于主流废水的稀释性和较低的操作温度，证明主流能源中性仍然具有挑战性。其他挑战包括工艺复杂性、工艺控制方面的知识差距以及缺乏可靠的技术。*拟议的研究计划将开发和整合创新的氮和碳管理技术和工艺，以实现能源中性的主流废水处理。该计划将使用一种创新的膜曝气生物膜技术，以实现创新的低能耗脱氮工艺。该计划将把这一低能耗工艺与上游主流厌氧预处理工艺相结合，以捕获和转移废水中的碳，并进一步提高能源生产。这种能源生产的提高，再加上脱氮能源需求的降低，预计将导致主流废水处理的总体能源中性平台。将使用包括实验室和中试规模组件的多尺度方法来定义工艺配置、动力学参数以及碳氮比和温度对工艺性能和限制的影响。此外，碳和氮过程和能源模型将在开源废水软件环境中实施，最终在计算机模拟平台上演示对各种设计参数的能量中性。这项研究将使这些新开发的创新工艺和技术能够实现整体流程优化、流程性能评估和能源基准。通过这种方式，废水可以在能量中立的情况下进行处理，不仅确保了清洁的环境，而且这样做不会对环境造成进一步的压力。未来一代高素质的人员将接受多尺度实验方法和计算机模拟方面的培训，从而使加拿大在能源中性废水处理战略和技术开发方面走在前列。

Over the years, wastewater treatment objectives have become more stringent. These objectives demand more energy and higher wastewater treatment operating costs. These increasing costs coupled with emerging sustainability requirements are propelling researchers, industry, and utilities to come up with more efficient ways of managing wastewater. Mainstream wastewater treatment has undergone a paradigm shift; parties now emphasize wastewater energy recovery and the concurrent reduction of energy consumption. This shift enables wastewater treatment plants to achieve energy neutrality while meeting treatment objectives. Despite extensive effort and rapid technological advances, demonstrating mainstream energy neutrality is still challenging due to the diluted nature and lower operating temperature characterizing mainstream wastewater. Other challenges include process complexity, knowledge gaps in process control and the lack of robust technologies. ***The proposed research program will develop and integrate innovative nitrogen and carbon management technologies and processes to achieve energy-neutral mainstream wastewater treatment. The program will use an innovative membrane-aerated biofilm technology to enable an innovative low-energy-consuming nitrogen removal process. The program will integrate this low-energy-consuming process with an upstream mainstream anaerobic pre-treatment process for capturing and diverting carbon from wastewater and further enhancing energy production. This enhanced energy production, coupled with lower energy demand for nitrogen removal, is expected to result in an overall energy-neutral platform for mainstream wastewater treatment. A multi-scale approach with both bench- and pilot-scale components will be used to define process configurations, kinetic parameters, and the impact of carbon-to-nitrogen ratio and temperature on process performance and limits. Furthermore, carbon and nitrogen processes and energy models will be implemented in an open-source wastewater software environment, ultimately demonstrating energy neutrality on a computer simulation platform for a wide range of design parameters. This research will enable holistic process optimization, process performance evaluation, and energy benchmarking of these newly developed innovative processes and technologies. In this manner, wastewater can be treated with energy neutrality, not only ensuring a clean environment but doing so without further stress on the environment. A future generation of highly qualified personnel will be trained both in multi-scale experimental methods and computer simulations, thus keeping Canada on the forefront of energy-neutral wastewater treatment strategy and technology development.