Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a sustainable waste management technology that primarily generates two products: biogas and digestate. The technology relies on the microorganisms' activity, which depends on several operational factors, such as pH, temperature, solid contents, and ammonia levels. Ammonia is an inorganic form of nitrogen resulting from the biodegradation of organic nitrogen. It is considered one of the major concerns for AD operations due to its inhibitory effects on some microorganisms, particularly methanogens. A common feedstock characterized by high nitrogen content is poultry manure (PM). PM is often avoided in anaerobic digesters due to the anticipated inhibition resulting from its high ammonia levels. However, since poultry manure is one of the most widely available organic wastes, researchers have extensively investigated ways to include PM as a primary feedstock for AD. One possible way to treat high ammonia levels in digestate is ammonia stripping, the physio-chemical separation of ammonia from a solution by introducing a stripping (carrier) gas. There are a few approaches to performing ammonia stripping in AD applications; the most commonly discussed in the literature are pre-hydrolysis and side-stream ammonia stripping. Pre-hydrolysis ammonia stripping is performed on raw feedstock after increasing pH and temperature and is usually not restricted in selecting the gas carrier. On the other hand, side-stream ammonia stripping is when a portion of the digester's working volume is filtered, and the filtrate is sent to a unit where pH and temperature are increased. The carrier gas in these systems is often limited to anaerobic gases such as biogas or steam. The third and most novel approach is post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping, conducted at an intermediate stage between hydrolysis and methanogenesis in a two-stage AD process. This configuration would address the shortcomings of the other two systems. However, there is minimal information on the feasibility and potential of this approach in the literature. This study aims to comprehensively investigate the post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping approach through the following four phases: Phase I) Proof of Concept; Phase II) Optimization; Phase III) Assessment of Alternative Carrier Gases; and Phase IV: Comparison of Different Ammonia Stripping Configurations. Phase I provided the proof of concept under the batch mode and compared the performance of post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping with two-stage AD and co-digestion to improve poultry manure's methane potential as the primary substrate. It was observed that ammonia stripping successfully improved methane potential by up to 150%, whereas improvements due to two-stage AD and co-digestion were limited to 41 and 9%, respectively. Phase II provided more insight into optimizing the ammonia stripping process. Different stripping conditions were tested (pH 7.8 (unadjusted), 9 and 10, temperature 25 (unadjusted), 40 and 55 °C, and flow rate 300 L/L/hour). The results showed that higher pH and temperature lead to higher removal efficiency. However, it was concluded that optimal conditions ultimately depend on the initial and target ammonia levels. Moreover, Analysis of Variance showed that pH and temperature were significant factors affecting the ammonia removal efficiency. In addition, it was observed that higher stripping temperatures (55 °C) enhanced the digestibility of PM and increased its methane potential more than stripping at 40 °C. It was concluded that the optimum stripping conditions were pH 9.5, temperature 40 or 55 °C, and flowrate of 100 L/L/hour to collectively increase ammonia removal while reducing the associated costs and material handling. In Phase III, renewable natural gas (RNG) was evaluated as a stripping medium in batch testing as a potential replacement for biogas and air. Ammonia stripping with RNG yielded promising results comparable to the application of air in terms of ammonia removal and enhancing biogas production from PM (60 and 69% ammonia removal for RNG and air, respectively). In addition, a metagenomic shotgun analysis showed that most biogas production was conducted through hydrogenotrophic methanogens instead of acetoclastic methanogens, which are more susceptible to high ammonia levels. Phase IV assessed the semi-continuous flow two-stage operation of mesophilic AD reactors coupled with different ammonia stripping configurations. Post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping successfully achieved a stable operation of PM mono-digestion at ammonia levels of 1700 and 2400 mg NH₃-N/L in the cases of stripping with air and RNG, respectively. In addition, post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping in semi-continuous flow mode may have promoted acetoclastic methanogens growth since volatile fatty acid concentrations were reduced in the digesters. Phase IV also proved that the performance of post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping is superior over pre-hydrolysis and side-stream ammonia stripping. In the semi-continuous flow reactors, post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping with air achieved on average 831 L biogas/ kg VS at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.6 g VS/L/day, whereas side-stream ammonia stripping resulted in average of 700 L biogas/ kg VS at OLR of 1.8 g VS/L/day and higher ammonia stripping requirements. Having said that, the base scenario (no ammonia stripping) was inhibited, indicating that both ammonia stripping configurations were considered successful in alleviating inhibitory effects of ammonia from poultry manure. Phase IV results also proved that air stripping repeatedly outperformed RNG as stripping mediums by having higher ammonia removal efficiencies resulting in higher methane production. However, stripping with RNG is believed to have more practical advantages than air due to avoiding the risk of oxygen infiltration into the reactor. Moreover, renewable natural gas has proven to be an efficient stripping medium that is available on-site. The final stage of Phase IV tested pre-hydrolysis ammonia stripping using air in batch mode and compared it with post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping. Pre-hydrolysis ammonia stripping provided little to no improvement to the methane potential of PM in batch mode and therefore was excluded from the semi-continuous flow experiment. The four phases of this study demonstrated the flexibility and the superiority of post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping over the other pre-hydrolysis and side-stream ammonia stripping. In addition, post-hydrolysis ammonia stripping was proven efficient and feasible for ammonia removal and enabling the mono- or co-digestion of poultry manure. The study also showed that using RNG instead of biogas can significantly reduce the operational costs of the treatment.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-09-25T12:23:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Danuza Costa Campos.pdf: 804335 bytes, checksum: 441982181b951341885ec2d7d4211a38 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-07-09 / By the population growth, the production of municipal solid residues is enhancing, and consequently the final disposal of such residues has been one of the major environmental problems faced in large urban centers. Lately the most used form of arrangement is the sanitary landfill, and when the residues are biodegraded inside the landfill cells they produce leachate and biogas. The leachate is a highly liquid pollutant, besides having high concentrations of ammonia nitrogen. Treating leachate is a very difficult task once its composition is very complex. A kind of treatment that is being developed is the stripping of ammonia where this chemical will be removed from the leachate by the mass transfer of the liquid phase to gas. Therefore, this paper addressed to study the ammonia stripping process in leachate liquids using plug-flow reactors in series. In order to accomplish the experimental part four plugflow reactors in series were built, with average height of 50 centimeters, without forced air supplier and without the leachate pH adjustment. The leachate samples used was from the metropolitan landfill of João Pessoa city, Paraiba, which was collected and transported to the EXTRABES laboratory and made the physicalchemical caracterization. The experimental monitoring system consisted of four distinct phases, with applied superficial loads of 450, 500, 600 and 700 kg NH4 +. ha 1.dia 1, hydraulic detention time equal to 65, 60, 50 and 38 days, and it was obtained an average efficiency of ammonia nitrogen removal around 96.1%, 99.7%, 99.5% and 98.5% respectively. At the end of monitoring, the reactor was discharged and made microscopic examinations of the remaining sludge reactor and each can observe the presence of bacteria fototróficas anoxigênicas, cocci, bacilli and algae. Can be found in this study that the higher the applied superficial load, was greater efficiency of removal of ammonia nitrogen, which may be load tested to verify the larger surface of contaminant removal. / Com o aumento populacional, a geração de resíduos sólidos urbanos vem aumentando, e com isso a disposição final desses resíduos vem sendo um dos graves problemas ambientais enfrentados nos grandes centros urbanos. A forma de disposição mais utilizada ultimamente é o aterro sanitário, e quando os resíduos são biodegradados dentro das células dos aterros, esses geram lixiviado e biogás. O lixiviado é um líquido altamente poluidor, haja vista, possuir altas concentrações de nitrogênio amoniacal. Tratar lixiviado é uma tarefa muito difícil devido a sua composição ser muito complexa. Um tratamento que vem sendo desenvolvido é o stripping de amônia, no qual a amônia vai ser removida do lixiviado por transferência de massa da fase líquida para a fase gasosa. Com isso, o presente trabalho tem como objetivo estudar o processo de stripping de amônia em líquidos lixiviados, utilizando reatores em série de fluxo pistonado. Para a realização da parte experimental foram construídos quatro reatores em série de fluxo pistonados, com altura média de 50 centímetros, sem alimentação forçada de ar e sem correção do pH do lixiviado. O lixiviado utilizado foi proveniente do aterro metropolitano de João Pessoa, onde foi coletado e transportado até as dependências físicas do laboratório da Estação Experimental de Tratamento Biológico de Esgoto Sanitário EXTRABES e feito a caracterização físico-química. O monitoramento do sistema experimental constou de quatro fases distintas, com cargas superficiais aplicadas de 450, 500, 600 e 700 kg NH4 +.ha 1.dia 1, tempo de detenção hidráulica igual a 65, 60, 50 e 38 dias, e obteve-se uma eficiência média de remoção de nitrogênio amoniacal em torno de 96,1%, 99,7%, 99,5% e 98,5%, respectivamente. Ao final do monitoramento, os reatores foram descarregados e feitos exames microscópicos no lodo remanescente de cada reator e pode-se observar a presença de bactérias fototróficas anoxigênicas, cocos, bacilos e algas. Pode ser constatado nesta pesquisa que quanto maior a carga superficial aplicada aos reatores, maior foi eficiência de remoção de nitrogênio amoniacal, podendo ainda ser testadas cargas superficiais maiores para verificar a remoção desse contaminante.

During this master thesis, the possibility of ammonia removal from digestate in combination with after hygienization has been investigated. The aim of the work was to see how much ammonia that could be removed but also the properties of other process parameters such as TS/VS content, pH and alkalinity of the digestate. It was also of interest to study the energy balances for a process that combines ammonia stripping with after hygienization. The purpose of hygienization in a biogas plant is to kill pathogens. To study ammonia stripping combined with after hygienization, a prototype of an ammonia stripper was built in a laboratory. The digestate was heated to the hygienization temperature of 70 °C and air was led through with the help of a peristaltic pump by the end of the system. Condensate was trapped in a bottle by cooling the tube and the gases were brought to another bottle containing 1 M sulfuric acid. Ammonia and sulfuric acid reacted and formed ammonium sulfate. The process was also tested with closed system using vacuum to decrease the boiling point and thereby create more condensate. The results from the experiments showed that with an air stripping process most of the ammonium was trapped in the sulfuric acid while with a vacuum process more ammonium was trapped in the condensate. The most important parameters to achieve a good ammonia removal were air flow and time. With the vacuum system, more condensate was removed. The removal of condensate could make it possible to recirculate process fluid from the stripping process and thereby save energy in the centrifugation part which is used to create a solid part of the bio digestate. It was concluded from the experiments that air stripping is more effective when it comes to ammonium recovery. The process could be improved by using higher air flow which could decrease the time to less than one hour, which is the desired hygienization time. However, it is desired to keep the pump flow as low as possible since it is energy consuming. A chemical increase of the pH would also be of interest to try since previous tests showed a strong correlation between high pH-value and good ammonia stripping. More tests overall are of interest to ensure a reliable result. Still, the combination of after-hygienization and ammonia stripping would contribute to a better environment and a sustainable agriculture with a natural and nutritious digestate.

As Kungsängens wastewater treatment plant is considering a move, it opens up a possibility to implement nitrogen recovery technologies that comply with current and future legislative requirements. Nitrogen recovery offers simultaneous treatment of wastewater and collection of concentrated ammonia products for fertiliser production. This can create a circular and sustainable solution by reduced energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen pollution. Despite the large amount of research that has been performed on this topic, practical use at wastewater treatment facilities in Sweden are still scarce. The aim of the degree project was to identify nitrogen recovery technologies and investigate their potential impact at a new Kungsängens wastewater treatment plant. A literature review provided different nitrogen technologies and concept scoring was used to rank and score them. Gas permeable membrane and ammonia stripping ranked the highest and both have the potential to be implemented at Kungsängens current or possible new site. Simulations were used to identify the change in energy consumption and change in effluent water quality related to the implementation of a nitrogen recovery technology. Calculations were performed to reach thequantities of nitrogen that could be recovered, and it was found that the nitrogen recovery potential was 0,2343 ton/d using gas permeable membrane, and 0,2750 ton/d using ammonia stripping. By replacing artificial fertilisers with recovered nitrogen, 7,95 kWh/kg N could be saved using gas permeable membrane and 2,76 kWh/kg N could be saved using ammonia stripping. The degree project also provides insight into European and Swedish lawconformity and predictability. Finally, a discussion of environmental impacts, potential for nitrogen recovery, nitrogen policies, and energy savings was conducted. It was concluded that nitrogen recovery can create benefits due to avoided nitrous oxide emissions, avoided production of precipitation chemicals and decreased energy consumption for aeration. Compared to artificial fertiliser produced using the Haber-Bosch method, it was determined that a significant reduction of carbon dioxide emissions could be reached.