Successful application of nitritation/anammox to wastewater with elevated organic carbon to ammonia ratios.

The nitritation/anammox process has been mainly applied to high-strength nitrogenous wastewaters with very low biodegradable organic carbon content (<0.5 g COD∙g N(-1)). However, several wastewaters have biodegradable organic carbon to nitrogen (COD/N) ratios between 0.

Temperature dependence and interferences of NO and N₂O microelectrodes used in wastewater treatment.

Electrodes for nitric and nitrous oxide have been on the market for some time, but have not yet been tested for an application in wastewater treatment processes. Both sensors were therefore assessed with respect to their (non)linear response, temperature dependence and potential cross sensitivity to dissolved compounds, which are present and highly dynamic in nitrogen conversion processes (nitric oxide, nitrous oxide, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, hydrazine, hydroxylamine, nitrous acid, oxygen, and carbon dioxide). Off-gas measurements were employed to differentiate between cross sensitivity to interfering components and chemical nitric oxide or nitrous oxide production.

Regime shift and microbial dynamics in a sequencing batch reactor for nitrification and anammox treatment of urine.

The microbial population and physicochemical process parameters of a sequencing batch reactor for nitrogen removal from urine were monitored over a 1.5-year period. Microbial community fingerprinting (automated ribosomal intergenic spacer analysis), 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and quantitative PCR on nitrogen cycle functional groups were used to characterize the microbial population.

Effect of heterotrophic growth on nitritation/anammox in a single sequencing batch reactor.

The combination of nitritation and autotrophic denitrification (anammox) in a single sequencing batch reactor (SBR) is an energy efficient process for nitrogen removal from high-strength ammonia wastewaters. So far, the process has been successfully applied to digester supernatant. However, the process could also be suitable to treat source-separated urine, which has very high ammonium and organic substrate concentrations (up to 8,200 gN/m3 and 10,000 gCOD/m3).