Reducing Operating Cost with Anammox in Wastewater Treatment : a Simulation Study

A simulation study is presented to investigate the use of the Anammox process for removing nitrogen compounds from wastewater to reduce operating cost. The literature review of technologies for removal of Total Nitrogen includes an overview of the biological nitrogen cycle, the discovery of Anammox, bioreactor design, operational strategies, and start-up of full-scale processes. A facility of 656 MLD with influent loading of 35 mg/L as NH3-N and 250 mg/L as BOD is used as a basis of the simulation study. Preliminary bioreactor sizing calculations are developed for six configurations. Subsequently, eight whole-plant simulation cases are compared to demonstrate operational savings for removal of Total Nitrogen. For the sample facility, this is shown to be on the order of $460 to $680K/year while attaining 66-70% Total Nitrogen removal and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 2 kt CO2/year. The project concludes with ideas about future development of the Anammox process.