In this research, we investigated the combined effect of nutrient recovery through struvite precipitation and nitrogen removal using anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) in laboratory scale configurations. We employed a single stage deammonification reactor configuration which means that the partial nitrification and anammox occurred in a single reactor system. Our batch tests showed that the pH of urine after the hydrolysis is optimal for struvite precipitation. The results also showed that almost 95% phosphorous and 15% nitrogen recovery/removal from the synthetic urine due to struvite precipitation. Post-struvite-precipitation solution was treated by deammonification process for further removal of nitrogen. The reactor performance of deammonification has been optimized for the 1gCOD/gN synthetic urine. The single stage deammonification process was able to remove almost 60~65 % of ammonia nitrogen present in the urine. Like in the case of nutrients, estrogens may also be present in urine in high concentrations. Our results show less than 0.5% of E2 was removed during the struvite precipitation. Most of the E2 removal occurred during the deammonification process perhaps due to biodegradation and adsorption, respectively.

Coupling chemical and biological processes for nutrient recovery and removal for better source separated urine management

250th National Meeting (2015)

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