RT Journal Article
T1 Rapid start-up and stable maintenance of the mainstream nitritation process based on the accumulation of free nitrous acid in a pilot-scale two-stage nitritation-anammox system
A1 Pedrouso Fuentes, Alba
A1 Morales, Nicolás
A1 Rodelas González, Belén
A1 Correa Galeote, David
A1 Val del Río, Ángeles
A1 Campos, José Luis
A1 Vázquez Padín, José Ramón
A1 Mosquera Corral, Anuska
K1 Ammonium oxidising bacteria (AOB)
K1 Anammox
K1 Municipal wastewater treatment
K1 Nitrite oxidising bacteria (NOB) suppression
K1 PN/AMX pilot plant
AB Two-stage partial nitritation (PN) and anammox (AMX) systems showed promising results for applying autotrophic nitrogen removal under mainstream conditions. In this study, a pilot-scale (600 L per reactor) two-stage PN/AMX system was installed in a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) provided with a high-rate activated sludge (HRAS) system for organic carbon removal. The PN/AMX system was operated without temperature control (ranging from 11 to 28 °C) and was subjected to the same variations in wastewater characteristics as the WWTP (22 to 63 mg NH4+- N/L). The developed strategy is simple, does not require the addition of chemicals and is characterised by short start-up periods. The PN process was established by applying a high hydraulic load and maintained by in situ accumulated free nitrous acid (FNA) of 0.015–0.2 mg HNO2-N/L. Based on pH value, a controlled aeration strategy was applied to achieve the target nitrite to ammonium ratio in the effluent (1.1 g NO2–-N/g NH4+-N) to feed the AMX reactor. Although NOB were not fully washed out from the system, nitrite accumulation remained (>99 %) stable with no evidence of NOB activity. In the AMX reactor, an overall nitrogen removal efficiency of 80 % was achieved. Regarding effluent quality, 12 ± 3 mg TN/L was obtained, but 5 mg NO3–-N/L was already in the HRAS effluent. The relative abundance of NOB showed a strong negative correlation with the FNA concentration, providing a good strategy for establishing PN under mainstream conditions
PB Elsevier
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30645
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/30645
LA eng
NO Separation and Purification Technology 317 (2023) 123851
NO This work has been financed by the European Commission (EU) through the LIFE project ZERO WASTE WATER (LIFE19 ENV/ES/000631), the Waterworks 2014 Cofounded Call (Water JPI/Horizon) through the Pioneer_STP (PCIN-2015-022 MINECO(AEI)/ID 199 (UE)) and by the Spanish Government (AEI) through GRANDSEA (CTM2014-55397-JIN), TREASURE (CTQ2017-83225-C2-1-R) and ECOPOLYVER (PID2020-112550RB-C21 and PID2020-112550RB-C22) projects. Alba Pedrouso also acknowledges the Xunta de Galicia (Spain) for her postdoctoral fellowship (ED481B-2021-041). Authors from the USC belong to the Galician Competitive Research Group (GRC D431C-2021/37)
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026