Full-scale partial nitritation/anammox experiences – An application survey

TLDR

Partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) is a recent breakthrough in biological wastewater treatment, discovered in the 1990s, and has led to the development of numerous technologies, several of which have reached full‑scale operation. This work aims to summarize PN/A technologies that have been successfully developed, implemented, and optimized for high‑strength ammonium wastewaters with low C:N ratios and elevated temperatures, with the goal of achieving 100 full‑scale installations worldwide by 2014. The authors surveyed 14 full‑scale installations to evaluate practical experiences, operational control, and troubleshooting. The survey revealed that more than 50 % of PN/A installations are sequencing batch reactors, 88 % operate as single‑stage systems, and 75 % treat municipal wastewater sidestreams, while incoming solids, aeration control, and nitrate buildup are the main operational difficulties, underscoring remaining obstacles.

Abstract

Partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) has been one of the most innovative developments in biological wastewater treatment in recent years. With its discovery in the 1990s a completely new way of ammonium removal from wastewater became available. Over the past decade many technologies have been developed and studied for their applicability to the PN/A concept and several have made it into full-scale. With the perspective of reaching 100 full-scale installations in operation worldwide by 2014 this work presents a summary of PN/A technologies that have been successfully developed, implemented and optimized for high-strength ammonium wastewaters with low C:N ratios and elevated temperatures. The data revealed that more than 50% of all PN/A installations are sequencing batch reactors, 88% of all plants being operated as single-stage systems, and 75% for sidestream treatment of municipal wastewater. Additionally an in-depth survey of 14 full-scale installations was conducted to evaluate practical experiences and report on operational control and troubleshooting. Incoming solids, aeration control and nitrate built up were revealed as the main operational difficulties. The information provided gives a unique/new perspective throughout all the major technologies and discusses the remaining obstacles.