Glocal assessment of integrated wastewater treatment and recovery concepts using partial nitritation/Anammox and microalgae for environmental impacts

Rungnapha Khiewwijit; Huub Rijnaarts; Hardy Temmink; Karel J Keesman

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.334

Glocal assessment of integrated wastewater treatment and recovery concepts using partial nitritation/Anammox and microalgae for environmental impacts

Sci Total Environ. 2018 Jul 1:628-629:74-84. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.334. Epub 2018 Feb 13.

Authors

Rungnapha Khiewwijit¹, Huub Rijnaarts², Hardy Temmink³, Karel J Keesman⁴

Affiliations

¹ Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, P.O. Box 1113, 8900CC Leeuwarden, The Netherlands; Biobased Chemistry and Technology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700AA Wageningen, The Netherlands; Sub-department of Environmental Technology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700EV Wageningen, The Netherlands.
² Sub-department of Environmental Technology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: huub.rijnaarts@wur.nl.
³ Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, P.O. Box 1113, 8900CC Leeuwarden, The Netherlands; Sub-department of Environmental Technology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 8129, 6700EV Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: hardy.temmink@wur.nl.
⁴ Wetsus, European Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Water Technology, P.O. Box 1113, 8900CC Leeuwarden, The Netherlands; Biobased Chemistry and Technology, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 17, 6700AA Wageningen, The Netherlands. Electronic address: karel.keesman@wur.nl.

PMID: 29428862
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.01.334

Abstract

This study explored the feasibility and estimated the environmental impacts of two novel wastewater treatment configurations. Both include combined bioflocculation and anaerobic digestion but apply different nutrient removal technologies, i.e. partial nitritation/Anammox or microalgae treatment. The feasibility of such configurations was investigated for 16 locations worldwide with respect to environmental impacts, such as net energy yield, nutrient recovery and effluent quality, CO₂ emission, and area requirements. The results quantitatively support the applicability of partial nitritation/Anammox in tropical regions and some locations in temperate regions, whereas microalgae treatment is only applicable the whole year round in tropical regions that are close to the equator line. Microalgae treatment has an advantage over the configuration with partial nitritation/Anammox with respect to aeration energy and nutrient recovery, but not with area requirements. Differential sensitivity analysis points out the dominant influence of microalgal biomass yield and wastewater nutrient concentrations on area requirements and effluent quality. This study provides initial selection criteria for worldwide feasibility and corresponding environmental impacts of these novel municipal wastewater treatment plant configurations.

Keywords: Effluent quality; Energy recovery; Microalgae reactor; Nutrient recovery; Wastewater management; Wastewater treatment.

MeSH terms

Biomass
Bioreactors
Microalgae
Nitrification
Nitrogen / analysis
Nitrogen / metabolism*
Waste Disposal, Fluid / methods*
Waste Disposal, Fluid / statistics & numerical data
Wastewater / chemistry
Water Microbiology

Substances

Waste Water
Nitrogen