PFI-TT: Developing a vacuum stripping and absorption system for value-added ammonia removal from wastewater

这一创新-技术转化伙伴关系项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是促进废水处理从昂贵的氨去除转向资源回收。氮排放限制越来越多地添加到废水排放许可证中，并且在国家和州污染物排放消除系统中变得更加严格。这种真空汽提和吸收工艺提供了一种经济、可扩展、有效的氨回收技术。可在集中动物饲养作业中扩大规模，以提升生物固体并回收动物粪便和厌氧消化粪便中的氨，从而提供动物粪便的土地应用。同时，该技术可以有效地回收厌氧消化污水污泥中的氨，提高从污泥中分离的生物固体的利用率，改善污泥脱水性，降低运营成本，增加废水资源回收设施的收入来源。这个PFI-TT项目将与废水产生者、技术供应商和一个合作现场站建立伙伴关系，以促进技术商业化。该项目还将培训一名博士后研究员和研究生及本科生，使他们能够在环境技术方面进行创新和创业。该项目旨在通过概念验证阶段，推进最近发明的真空汽提和吸收技术，以实现富氨废水的增值处理。为了从采用单池沸腾的真空汽提塔扩大规模，一个125加仑的汽提塔垂直配置有3个沸腾池，将与垃圾渗滤液，污泥厌氧状态，污泥厌氧状态的压力，牛粪，和粪肥厌氧状态一起操作，以验证多池沸腾设计，并优化这种扩大规模的方法。试点测试还将调整除雾器和吸收塔的设计，以有效地回流水蒸气并以粒状硫酸铵的形式回收氨。在中试试验中，将沿着氨回收动力学评估真空汽提条件下真空辅助热处理对固体增溶、生物固体病原体减少和固态脱水的增强作用，以促进商业应用的放大设计和经济分析。高速率、稳定的厌氧消化的固体增溶和氨回收的增强将在小规模下进行评估。为了促进回收盐作为肥料的认证，特别是用于有机农业，将探索沼气中汽提氨和二氧化碳的双重吸收，以良性生产碳酸氢铵颗粒。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to promote the shift of wastewater treatment from costly ammonia removal to resource recovery. Nitrogen discharge limits are increasingly added to wastewater discharge permits and have become more stringent in the National and State Pollutant Discharge Elimination Systems. This vacuum stripping and absorption process provides an economical, scalable, efficient ammonia recovery technology. It can be scaled up at concentrated animal feeding operations to upgrade biosolids and recover ammonia in animal manure and anaerobically digested manure, thus providing land application of animal manure. Meanwhile, the technology can efficiently recover ammonia in anaerobically digested sewage sludge, raising the utility of biosolids separated from sludge and improving sludge dewaterability, reducing operating costs and adding revenue streams at wastewater resource recovery facilities. This PFI-TT project will establish partnerships with wastewater generators, technology vendors, and a cooperative field station to promote technology commercialization. The project will also train a postdoctoral researcher and graduate and undergraduate students in innovation and entrepreneurship in environmental technology.This project is to advance the recently invented vacuum stripping and absorption technology through the proof-of-concept stage for value-added treatment of ammonia-rich wastewater. To scale up from a vacuum stripper that employs single pool boiling, a 125-gallon stripper configured vertically with 3 boiling pools will be operated with landfill leachate, sludge digestate, pressate of sludge digestate, dairy manure, and manure digestate to validate the multi-pool boiling design and optimize this upscaling approach. The pilot tests will also tune the designs of a demister and absorption column for effective reflux of water vapor and recovery of ammonia as granular ammonium sulfate. The enhancement of vacuum-assisted thermal treatment under the vacuum stripping conditions on solids solubilization, reduction of biosolids pathogens, and digestate dewatering will be evaluated along with ammonia recovery kinetics in the pilot tests to facilitate scale-up design and economic analysis of commercial applications. The enhancement of solids solubilization and ammonia recovery for high-rate, stable anaerobic digestion will be assessed at a small scale. To facilitate certification of the recovered salt as a fertilizer, especially for organic farming, dual absorption of the stripped ammonia and carbon dioxide in biogas will be explored for benign production of ammonium bicarbonate granules.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.