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A special issue of Processes (ISSN 2227-9717). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental and Green Processes".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 July 2022) | Viewed by 37685

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Albert Magrí

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Guest Editor

Laboratory of Chemical and Environmental Engineering (LEQUIA), Institute of the Environment (IMA), University of Girona (UdG), E-17003 Girona, Catalonia, Spain
Interests: nutrients; environment; wastewater treatment; environmental biotechnologies; sustainability; resource recovery; phosphate crystallization processes; potassium
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Tommaso Lotti

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Guest Editor

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering – DICEA, University of Florence, Via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy
Interests: wastewater treatment; resource recovery and valorization; innovative nutrients removal and recovery processes; biofilm; aerobic granular sludge; anammox-based processes; extracellular polymeric substances; EPS; microbial ecology; microbial community engineering

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) has become an appealing process for the water sector as a method to remove nitrogen from wastewater using low inputs of energy while maximizing potential for organic carbon valorization. A long road has been travelled since its discovery at the beginning of the nineties. Nowadays, the anammox-based processes can be considered as a feasible alternative for the treatment of sidestreams after sludge digestion in wastewater treatment plants, as well as for some other high-strength industrial wastewaters. Treatment of the mainstream, as well as of other complex wastewaters, is moving forward although it still requires further development to be implemented safely. In addition to the technological and engineering approach, other fundamental issues related to process biochemistry and microbial interactions existing within bioreactors still need to be better understood. The quantification of objective environmental indicators will help in assessing and guaranteeing the sustainability of the anammox-based processes.

This Special Issue will focus on anammox-based processes for wastewater treatment. We welcome novel research, review, and opinion pieces covering all related topics, including:

Development of new anammox-based solutions and application to wastewater treatment
Integrated process design, scale-up and full-scale case studies
Process modelling, simulation, optimization and control
Process biochemistry, molecular biology and use of omic techniques
Gaseous emissions
Sustainability and life cycle assessment

Dr. Albert Magrí
Dr. Tommaso Lotti
Guest Editors

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Keywords

anammox-based processes
deammonification
microbial interactions
microbial community analysis
nitrogen emissions
biochemical studies
process modelling and control
extracellular polymeric substances
sustainability

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Published Papers (10 papers)

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Editorial

Jump to: Research

3 pages, 208 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Special Issue on “Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment”

by Albert Magrí and Tommaso Lotti

Processes 2023, 11(5), 1422; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr11051422 - 8 May 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1232

Abstract

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox, A) has become an appealing bioprocess for the water sector as a method to remove nitrogen (N) from wastewater using low-energy and organic carbon inputs [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

15 pages, 1497 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Enhanced Nitrogen Removal from Domestic Wastewater by Partial-Denitrification/Anammox in an Anoxic/Oxic Biofilm Reactor

by Yu Huang, Yongzhen Peng, Donghui Huang, Jiarui Fan and Rui Du

Processes 2022, 10(1), 109; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10010109 - 6 Jan 2022

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3288

Abstract

A partial-denitrification coupling with anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) process (PD/A) in a continuous-flow anoxic/oxic (A/O) biofilm reactor was developed to treat carbon-limited domestic wastewater (ammonia (NH₄⁺-N) of 55 mg/L and chemical oxygen demand (COD) of 148 mg/L in average) for about 200 days operation. Satisfactory NH₄⁺-N oxidation efficiency above 95% was achieved with rapid biofilm formation in the aerobic zone. Notably, nitrite (NO₂⁻-N) accumulation was observed in the anoxic zone, mainly due to the insufficient electron donor for complete nitrate (NO₃⁻-N) reduction. The nitrate-to-nitrite transformation ratio (NTR) achieved was as high as 64.4%. After the inoculation of anammox-enriched sludge to anoxic zones, total nitrogen (TN) removal was significantly improved from 37.3% to 78.0%. Anammox bacteria were effectively retained in anoxic biofilm utilizing NO₂⁻-N produced via the PD approach and NH₄⁺-N in domestic wastewater, with the relative abundance of 5.83% for stable operation. Anammox pathway contributed to TN removal by a high level of 38%. Overall, this study provided a promising method for mainstream nitrogen removal with low energy consumption and organic carbon demand. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

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21 pages, 7877 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Anammox-Based Processes for Mature Leachate Treatment in SBR: A Modelling Study

by Anna Lanzetta, Davide Mattioli, Francesco Di Capua, Gianpaolo Sabia, Luigi Petta, Giovanni Esposito, Gianni Andreottola, Giovanni Gatti, Willy Merz and Michela Langone

Processes 2021, 9(8), 1443; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9081443 - 19 Aug 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3329

Abstract

Mature landfill leachates are characterized by high levels of ammoniacal nitrogen which must be reduced for discharge in the sewer system and further treatment in municipal wastewater treatment plants. The use of anammox-based processes can allow for an efficient treatment of ammonium-rich leachates. In this work, two real scale sequencing batch reactors (SBRs), designed to initially perform partial nitritation/anammox (PN/A) and simultaneous partial nitrification and denitrification (SPND) for the treatment of ammonium-rich urban landfill leachate, were modelled using BioWin 6.0 in order to enable plant-wide modelling and optimizing. The constructed models were calibrated and validated using data from long- and short-term (one cycle) SBR operation and fit well to the main physical-chemical parameters (i.e., ammonium, nitrite and nitrate concentrations) measured during short-term (one cycle) operations. Despite the different strategies in terms of dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations and aeration and mixing patterns applied for SBR operation, the models allowed for understanding that in both reactors the PN/A process was shown as the main contributor to nitrogen removal when the availability of organic carbon was low. Indeed, in both SBRs, the activity of nitrite oxidizing bacteria was inhibited due to high levels of free ammonia, whereas anammox bacteria were active due to the simultaneous presence of ammonium and nitrite and their ability to recover from DO inhibition. Increasing the external carbon addition, a prompt decrease of the anammox biomass was observed, with SPND becoming the main nitrogen removal mechanism. Models were also applied to estimate the production rates of nitrous oxide by aerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria and heterotrophic denitrifiers. The models were found to be a robust tool for understanding the effects of different operating conditions (i.e, temperature, cycle phases, DO concentration, external carbon addition) on the nitrogen removal performances of the two reactors, assessing the contribution of the different bacterial groups involved. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

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17 pages, 4258 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Application of Anammox-Based Processes in Urban WWTPs: Are We on the Right Track?

by Alba Pedrouso, José Ramón Vázquez-Padín, Dafne Crutchik and José Luis Campos

Processes 2021, 9(8), 1334; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9081334 - 30 Jul 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2868

Abstract

The application of partial nitritation and anammox processes (PN/A) to remove nitrogen can improve the energy efficiency of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) as well as diminish their operational costs. However, there are still several limitations that are preventing the widespread application of PN/A processes in urban WWTPs such as: (a) the loss of performance stability of the PN/A units operated at the sludge line, when the sludge is thermally pretreated to increase biogas production; (b) the proliferation of nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) in the mainstream; and (c) the maintenance of a suitable effluent quality in the mainstream. In this work, different operational strategies to overcome these limitations were modelled and analyzed. In WWTPs whose sludge is thermically hydrolyzed, the implementation of an anerobic treatment before the PN/A unit is the best alternative, from an economic point of view, to maintain the stable performance of this unit. In order to apply the PN/A process in the mainstream, the growth of ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (AOB) should be promoted in the sludge line by supplying extra sludge to the anaerobic digesters. The AOB generated would be applied to the water line to partially oxidize ammonia, and the anammox process would then be carried out. Excess nitrate generated by anammox bacteria and/or NOB can be removed by recycling a fraction of the WWTP effluent to the biological reactor to promote its denitrification. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

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15 pages, 4465 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Two Decades of Experience with the Granular Sludge-Based ANAMMOX^® Process Treating Municipal and Industrial Effluents

by Willie Driessen and Tim Hendrickx

Processes 2021, 9(7), 1207; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9071207 - 13 Jul 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 5006

Abstract

This paper is a review of 20 years of full-scale experience with the granular sludge-based ANAMMOX process. The ANAMMOX process is a biological deammonification process for energy-efficient removal of ammoniacal nitrogen, which has been successfully applied on dewatering reject liquors from biosolids sludge digesters (e.g., mesophilic anaerobic digestions, codigestion, thermal sludge hydrolysis process (THP)) and nutrient-rich anaerobically treated industrial effluents (e.g., fermentation industry, food industry). The ANAMMOX process is a continuously operated biological process using granular biomass. The highly active concentrated granular biomass allows for compact reactor systems and a fast start-up. Long term operations of various case studies show stable process performance of full-scale reactors treating municipal and industrial effluents, achieving ammoniacal nitrogen (NH₄-N) removal in excess of 90% at low and high loading rates up to 2.5 kgNH₄-N/(m³·d). Some special aspects (e.g., micro-nutrients, inhibition, alkalinity consumption) of treating various wastewaters are discussed in detail. The ANAMMOX process is demonstrated to be resilient in handling process upsets and off-spec wastewater composition. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

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12 pages, 1506 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Recirculating Aquaculture System Wastewater on Anammox Performance and Community Structure

by Jonathan A. C. Roques, Federico Micolucci, Suguru Hosokawa, Kristina Sundell and Tomonori Kindaichi

Processes 2021, 9(7), 1183; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9071183 - 7 Jul 2021

Cited by 7 | Viewed by 4052

Abstract

Recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) are good candidates for the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector. A current limitation of RAS is the production and accumulation of nitrogenous waste, which could affect fish health. We investigated the potential of the anaerobic ammonia oxidation (anammox) process to treat marine wastewater from a cold-water RAS. We show that the marine anammox bacteria Candidatus Scalindua is a promising candidate. However, its activity was affected by unknown compounds in the RAS wastewater and/or the sub-optimum content of essential trace elements (TEs). Anammox activity dropped to 2% and 13% in NH₄⁺ and NO₂⁻ removal, respectively, when NO₃-rich RAS wastewater was used as a medium in the absence of TE supplementation. A TE supplementation was added to the RAS wastewater in a subsequent phase, and a recovery in anammox activity was shown (25% and 24% in NH₄⁺ and NO₂⁻ removal, respectively). Future studies need to identify the unknown factor and determine the specific needs regarding TE for optimal RAS wastewater treatment by Candidatus Scalindua. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

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12 pages, 1664 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

An Analysis of Operation Conditions and Microbial Characteristics in Swine Wastewater Treatment Plants with Spontaneously Enriched Anammox Bacteria

by Miyoko Waki, Chikako Ishimoto, Ryu Suto, Takafumi Nagamine, Toshimi Matsumoto, Hirohide Uenishi, Tomoko Yasuda and Yasuyuki Fukumoto

Processes 2021, 9(6), 1010; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9061010 - 7 Jun 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2501

Abstract

The spontaneous enrichment of anammox bacteria has been reported in swine wastewater treatment facilities. However, their causative conditions and microbial characteristics, which this study aims to explain, are poorly understood. We discovered eight treatment facilities where the collected red biofilms exhibited high anammox activity levels at 57–843 µmol-N₂/g-ignition loss (IL)/h and anammox DNA concentrations of 4.3 × 10⁸–1.6 × 10¹² copies/g-IL. The facilities used various wastewater treatment methods—six of them employed a multi-stage continuous reactor, whereas aeration tanks were continuously aerated at another combination of six facilities. Levels of dissolved oxygen (DO) in these tanks were fairly low at ≤1 mg/L. Pyrosequencing of the biofilms indicated the presence of 3–62.5% Planctomycetes, and the dominant anammox in each biofilm comprised three operational taxonomic units (OTUs) similar to Candidatus Jettenia asiatica, Ca. Brocadia fulgida, and Ca. B. caroliniensis. This suggested that some particular species of anammox bacteria naturally thrive when operating a swine wastewater treatment facility at low DO levels. The frequent enrichment of anammox biofilms at the sampled sites indicated that these treatment facilities were good seed sources of anammox; therefore, anammox treatment would be a viable method for the removal of nitrogen from swine wastewater. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

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12 pages, 8312 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Lessons Learned from 10 Years of ANITA Mox for Sidestream Treatment

by Romain Lemaire and Magnus Christensson

Processes 2021, 9(5), 863; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9050863 - 14 May 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 4175

Abstract

When a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) uses anaerobic digestion (AD) on its sludge treatment line, the opportunity to install a sidestream deammonification process for the cost-effective removal of the N-rich reject water load generated by the sludge digester should be considered. In this context, the ANITA™ Mox process based on the moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) technology has been implemented at more than 30 full-scale facilities over the last 10 years to treat reject water from conventional AD or after thermal hydrolysis process (THP) to reduce the N-load and associated treatment costs on the WWTP. This paper reviews the lessons learned in the implementation of the ANITA™ Mox process at several WWTP in the US, Europe, and Australia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

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17 pages, 2880 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Scaling-Up and Long-Term Operation of a Full-Scale Two-Stage Partial Nitritation-Anammox System Treating Landfill Leachate

by Albert Magrí, Maël Ruscalleda, Albert Vilà, Tiago R. V. Akaboci, M. Dolors Balaguer, Josep M. Llenas and Jesús Colprim

Processes 2021, 9(5), 800; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9050800 - 1 May 2021

Cited by 22 | Viewed by 3514

Abstract

(1) Background: Biological treatment of leachate in landfill sites using anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) is challenging because of the intrinsic characteristics of this complex wastewater. In this work, the scale-up and subsequent full-scale implementation of the PANAMMOX^® technology (LEQUIA Research Group, Girona, Catalonia, Spain) are presented as a case study to achieve long-term nitrogen (N) removal from mature leachate mostly through a completely autotrophic pathway. (2) Methods: The treatment system consists of two sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) running in series to individually operate partial nitritation (PN) and anammox (A). Following biological treatment, physicochemical oxidation (i.e., Fenton-based process) was used to remove the remaining non-biodegradable organic matter. A cost analysis comparative was conducted in relation to the former technology used on-site for treating the leachate. (3) Results: The scale-up of the process from pilot- to full-scale was successfully achieved, finally reaching an average removal of 7.4 kg N/d. The composition of the leachate changed over time, but especially once the landfill site stopped receiving solid waste (this fact involved a marked increase in the strength of the leachate). The adjustment of the alkalinity-to-ammonium ratio before feeding PN-SBR helped to improve the N-removal efficiency. Values of conductivity above 25 mS/cm in A-SBR could negatively affect the performance of the anammox process, making it necessary to consider a dilution strategy according to the on-line monitoring of this parameter. The analysis of the operational costs showed that by implementing the PANAMMOX^® technology (LEQUIA Research Group, Girona, Catalonia, Spain) in the landfill site, savings up to 32% were achievable. (4) Conclusions: Treatment of mature landfill leachate in such a two-stage PN-A system was demonstrated as feasible and economically appealing despite the complexity of this industrial wastewater. Accurate expert supervision of the process was a key factor to reaching good performances. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

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15 pages, 2635 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Evaluation of a Full-Scale Suspended Sludge Deammonification Technology Coupled with an Hydrocyclone to Treat Thermal Hydrolysis Dewatering Liquors

by Pascal Ochs, Benjamin D. Martin, Eve Germain, Zhuoying Wu, Po-Heng Lee, Tom Stephenson, Mark van Loosdrecht and Ana Soares

Processes 2021, 9(2), 278; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9020278 - 1 Feb 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3753

Abstract

Suspended sludge deammonification technologies are frequently applied for sidestream ammonia removal from dewatering liquors resulting from a thermal hydrolysis anaerobic digestion (THP/AD) process. This study aimed at optimizing the operation, evaluate the performance and stability of a full-scale suspended sludge continuous stirred tank reactor (S-CSTR) with a hydrocyclone for anaerobic ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AMX) biomass separation. The S-CSTR operated at a range of nitrogen loading rates of 0.08–0.39 kg N m⁻³ d⁻¹ displaying nitrogen removal efficiencies of 75–89%. The hydrocyclone was responsible for retaining 56–83% of the AMX biomass and the washout of ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria (NOB) was two times greater than AMX. The solid retention time (SRT) impacted on NOB washout, that ranged from 0.02–0.07 d⁻¹. Additionally, it was demonstrated that an SRT of 11–13 d was adequate to wash-out NOB. Microbiome analysis revealed a higher AMX abundance (Candidatus scalindua) in the reactor through the action of the hydrocyclone. Overall, this study established the optimal operational envelope for deammonification from THP/AD dewatering liquors and the role of the hydrocyclone towards maintaining AMX in the S-CSTR and hence obtain process stability. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anammox-Based Processes for Wastewater Treatment)

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