New technology for ammonium nitrogen recovery from wastewater. Phase I.

氮是生命最重要的营养物质之一。大量的它存在于空气中;然而，它不能以这种形式提供给生物和植物。为了使其可用，它被转化为氨气，使用相当昂贵的化学过程，消耗大量的化石燃料和能源，并产生温室气体。与此同时，几乎所有的城市废水流，以及许多工业废水流，都含有大量以铵或氨形式存在的氮。如果处理不当，它会造成环境污染问题。目前，许多废水处理厂将铵转化回氮气，即空气中存在的形式。然而，大多数此类技术都非常昂贵，有时无法应用于某些废水流。提出的从废水中回收铵氮的技术使我们能够在不进行化学或生物破坏的情况下将其去除，并将其转化为不同的商业产品。它们有可能替代某些工业合成氨产品。这项新技术将从废水中生产氨或含有氨的产品，减少对昂贵的合成氨生产的需求。与此同时，将解决去除铵态氮的废水处理挑战。该技术的一些产品可能是：净化废水，含氨肥料或氨气。后者不仅可用于农业，还可作为替代燃料。 该技术不同于任何其他氮回收技术，因为它是非常可持续的，相对简单，便宜，不需要太多额外的资源。该研究项目将开发这种新技术的理论和工程原理，展示其潜力，并验证最终商业产品的应用。然后，该技术预计将吸引早期投资，并准备转移到新的或成熟的公司进行商业化。该技术无疑将使加拿大的许多工业领域受益，如废物管理，农业和能源生产。

Nitrogen is one of the most essential nutrients for life. Large amounts of it are present in the air; however it is not available to the organisms and plants in this form. In order to make it available, it is turned into ammonia gas, using rather expensive chemical process which consumes substantial amounts of fossil fuels and energy, and produces greenhouse gases. At the same time, almost any municipal wastewater stream, and many industrial ones, contain large quantities of nitrogen in the form ammonium, or ammonia. Unless treated properly, it can cause environmental pollution problems. Currently, many wastewater treatment plants convert ammonium back into the nitrogen gas, the form it is present in the air. However, most of such technologies are very expensive and sometimes cannot be applied to some wastewater streams. The proposed technology of ammonium nitrogen recovery from wastewater enables us to remove it without chemical or biological destruction, and turn it into different commercial products. They can potentially substitute for some industrial synthetic ammonia products. This new technology will produce ammonia, or products containing it, from wastewater, reducing the need for the expensive synthetic ammonia production. At the same time, the wastewater treatment challenges to remove ammonium nitrogen will be addressed. Some of the products of this technology may be: purified wastewater, ammonia containing fertilizer, or ammonia gas. The latter can be used not only in agriculture, but also as an alternative fuel. The technology differs from any other nitrogen recovery technologies in that it is very sustainable, relatively simple, cheap, and does not require much additional resources. This research project will develop theoretical and engineering principles of this new technology, demonstrate its potential, and verify the applications of the final commercial products. The technology is then expected to attract early-stage investments and be ready for transferring to a new or established company for its commercialization. The technology will undoubtedly benefit many industrial fields in Canada, such as waste management, agriculture, and energy production.