WEFTEC 2012

Full-Plant Deammonification for Low-Energy, Low-Carbon Nitrogen Removal

M. O’Shaughnessy1*, B. Wett2, S. Murthy3, C. Bott4, C. deBarbadillo5, D. Kinnear6, J.B.
Neethling6, A. Shaw5, B. Stinson7, J. Barnard5

1
PWCSA,1851 Rippon Blvd, Woodbridge, VA 22191, USA
2
DCWATER, DWT, 5000 Overlook Ave., SW Washington, DC 20032, USA
3
ARAconsult, Unterbergerstr.1, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria
4
HRSD, 1436 Air Rail Ave., Virginia Beach, VA 23455, USA
5
Black & Veatch, 3133 East Camelback Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85016, USA
6
HDR, 4405 Church St., Charlotte, NC 28202, USA
7
AECOM WATER, 606 Third Ave, New York, NY 10158, USA
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: moshaughnessy@pwcsa.org

ABSTRACT

A threefold coordinated research effort is undertaken by cooperating utilities at three different

experimental scales investigating bioaugmentation, enrichment and performance of anammox
organisms in the mainstream treatment. Two major technological components are applied –
selective sludge wasting by a classifying cyclone to retain anammox granules and low DO-
operation to repress nitrite oxidizers. This paper describes process conditions and operation modes
to direct more nitrogen to the resource saving metabolic route of deammonification.

KEYWORDS: Deammonification, nitrogen removal, energy efficiency, anammox, Demon

INTRODUCTION

The successful application of full-plant deammonification could save wastewater utilities hundreds
of millions of dollars in aeration and external carbon costs in the life cycle by reducing energy
required for aeration by 75% and eliminating external carbon. Table 1 demonstrates the potential
operating cost savings from implementing innovative technology for nitrogen removal at DC
Water, Washington DC, and Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD) in Virginia. This
innovative technology is compatible with existing wastewater infrastructure, often with minimal
modifications.

Table 1. Potential Operating Cost Savings

Wastewater Plant Annual Energy Savings* Annual External Carbon
Savings **
Blue Plains (DC Water) $4.0 - $6.0 million $7.0 million
330 mgd)
8 WWTPs (HRSD) $2.0 - $4.0 million $2.0 million
(125 mgd)
* Assumes 50% - 75% anammox nitrogen removal.
**External carbon such as methanol.

Copyright ©2012 Water Environment Federation. All Rights Reserved.

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 WEFTEC 2012

“Deammonification” involves anammox bacteria working synergistically with ammonia oxidizing

bacteria (AOB) to oxidize ammonia autotrophically (without organic carbon) to produce nitrogen
gas. In the first step, AOB aerobically convert half of the ammonia to nitrite. In the second step,
anammox bacteria oxidize the ammonia using nitrite to produce nitrogen gas without the organic
carbon substrate as required for heterotrophic denitrification.

The implications of full-plant deammonification for sustainable, cost effective and energy positive
wastewater are to use less oxygen to remove nitrogen, and thus less energy is needed for aeration
as shown in Figure 1. Deammonification requires almost no organic carbon to remove nitrogen,
reducing costs for external carbon, such as methanol, for nitrogen removal. Finally, the organic
carbon in wastewater can be sent to digestion rather than denitrification resulting in more gas
production and electricity generation.

7
Conventional N itrification / Denitrification
6
Deam m onification
5

Energy Dem and  (kW ‐ Carbon Dem and  (kg

hr/kg A m m onia‐N itrogen COD/kg Total N itrogen
R em oved) R em oved)

Figure 1: Energy and carbon demand comparison for

nitrogen removal using deammonification and
conventional nitrification/denitrification

Presently, full-scale applications of deammonification processes remove nitrogen from warm,

ammonia-laden (low C/N ratio) dewatering sidestreams from anaerobically digested solids with 20
first generation processes in operation in Europe. This research targets the next generation of
deammonification processes by expanding deammonification into the mainstream liquid treatment
train for full-plant nitrogen removal as shown in Figures 2 and 3. Figure 2 shows a plant layout
that includes a sidestream demmonification process that provides bioaugmentation, or seeding, of
anammox bacteria into the mainstream plant. The plant layout in Figure 3 does not include
sidestream demmonification and proposes a mainstream bioreactor that would develop self-
sustaining demmonification. Also proposed in Figure 3 is the use of an upstream anaerobic
process to maximize conversion of wastewater carbon into methane for energy recovery.

Copyright ©2012 Water Environment Federation. All Rights Reserved.

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 WEFTEC 2012

Figure 2: Schematic Full-Plant Deammonification with Sidestream Deammonification

implentation for the Blue Plains WWTP, Washington DC and the Strass WWTP, Strass,
Austria.

Copyright ©2012 Water Environment Federation. All Rights Reserved.

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 WEFTEC 2012

 
Figure 3: Schematic Full-Plant Deammonification without Sidestream Deammonification for
the Chesapeake-Elizabeth WWTP, Hampton Roads, VA.

METHODOLOGY

A threefold coordinated research effort is undertaken by cooperating utilities at three different

experimental scales (including full-scale) investigating bioaugmentation, enrichment and
performance of anammox organisms in the mainstream treatment. Quantitative molecular
techniques are used to track augmentation routes and monitor the population dynamics in the
mainstream bioreactor. Activity measurements and other kinetic test results will be translated into
a dynamic model which helps to develop efficient process schemes.

 DC Water: Bench-scale SBR-systems with a volume of 10L are operated at different operation
modes (intermittent versus continuous aeration) and different DO-levels down to 0.05 mg DO/L.
Different experimental protocols have been developed to monitor DO-half-saturation values of
ammonia oxidizers (AOB) versus nitrite oxidizers (NOB).

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This research presents promising new process flowsheets that could revolutionize future processes
for full-plant nitrogen removal through the selective retention of anammox bacteria. This is of
significance for many plants that are now considering deammonification for full-plant
implementation.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This project is jointly funded by the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DCWater),
Washington DC, the Hampton Roads Sanitation District (HRSD), Virginia and the Water
Environment Research Federation (WERF) through a grant by the United States Environmental
Protection Agency.

Although the research described in this article has been funded wholly or in part by the United
States Environmental Protection Agency through Assistance Agreement No. 83419201 to the
Water Environment Research Foundation, it has not been subjected to the Agency’s required peer
and policy review and therefore does not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency and no
official endorsement should be inferred.

Copyright ©2012 Water Environment Federation. All Rights Reserved.

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