Short-Cut Nitrogen Removal:

A State of the Art Review

Jose Jimenez, Ph.D., P.E.

Brown and Caldwell
Outline
• Introduction

• Overview of nitrogen (N) removal in wastewater

• Conventional N removal
• Nitritation-Denitritation/ Nitrite-Shunt
• Partial Nitritation- Deammonification

• Case studies – potential savings

2
Introduction
3
Sidestream Short-Cut N Removal
Established Technology

4
Sidestream Short-Cut N Removal
Established Technology

5
Energy Savings

6
Carbon Requirements for Mainstream
Biological Nitrogen Removal Processes
Constituent Nitrification Nitritation- Partial
denitrification denitritation nitritation-
deammonificati
on
Carbon required for nitrogen
3.5 – 4.0 2.0 – 2.5 0.5
removal (mg COD /mg N)
Net Process Oxygen
Requirement (mg O2/mg N 1.71
Converted to N2)

7
 Nitrogen Removal
Short Cut Nitrogen Removal Processes
8
Conventional Nitrification-Denitrification
Autotrophic Bacteria Heterotrophic Bacteria
Aerobic Environment Anoxic Environment

1 mole Nitrate 40% Carbon (BOD)

(NO3-)
25% O2 (energy)
Nitrite Oxidizing .
Bacteria (NOB)
1 mole Nitrite 1 mole Nitrite
(NO2-) (NO2-) 60% Carbon (BOD)
75% O2 (energy)
~100% Alkalinity Ammonia Oxidizing
Bacteria (AOB)

1 mole Ammonia ½ mol Nitrogen Gas

(NH3 / NH4 +) (N2 )

Oxygen Required 3.3 lb O2/lb N

Carbon Required 6.6 lb COD/lb N
Yield 1.9 lb VSS/lb N
9
N Removal Process

NITRITE
OXIDIZING
BACTERIA
(NOB)

AMMONIA
OHO
OXIDIZING
DENITRIFYING
BACTERIA BACTERIA
(AOB)

10
Conventional Nitrogen Removal Processes

Advantages Disadvantages
WW carbon utilized for Large BNR volume
denitrification
Alkalinity recovered Nitrogen removal limited by IMLR 11
Conventional Nitrogen Removal Processes
Effect of C:N Ratio on Denitrification
16

14

12
Effluent NO3-N (mg/L)

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

Influent BOD:TKN Ratio (mg BOD5/mg TKN as N)

Jimenez et al. (2010) 12

 Nitritation-Denitritation = “Nitrite Shunt”
Autotrophic Bacteria Heterotrophic Bacteria
Aerobic Environment Anoxic Environment

1 mole Nitrate 40% Carbon (BOD)

(NO3-)
25% O2 (energy)
Nitrite Oxidizing .
Bacteria (NOB)
1 mole Nitrite 1 mole Nitrite
Nitritation (NO2-) (NO2-) 60% Carbon (BOD)
75% O2 (energy) Denitritation
~100% Alkalinity Ammonia Oxidizing
Bacteria (AOB)

1 mole Ammonia ½ mol Nitrogen Gas

(NH3 / NH4 +) (N2 )
Advantages:
• 25% reduction in oxygen demand (energy)
• 40% reduction in carbon (e- donor) demand
• 40% reduction in biomass production 13
 Nitrite-Shunt
Inhibited by
high
ammonia NITRITE
conc. OXIDIZING HETEROTROPHIC
DENITRIFYING
BACTERIA BACTERIA
(NOB)
At low to no
Compet DO OHO
e for outcompete
nitrite NOB for
AMMONIA nitrite
OXIDIZING
BACTERIA
Grows (AOB)
faster than
NOB
Carbon Requirements for Mainstream
Biological Nitrogen Removal Processes
35

30
Effluent NOx-N (mg/L)

25

20

15

10

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Soluble COD:NH4 Ratio

SND Shunt

Brown and Caldwell Internal Data 15

NOB Outselection
• Competition with OHOs 1
AOB

Specific growth rate

0.8

for Nitrite at low DO 0.6 NOB

(1/d)
operation 0.4

0.2

0
• AOB always at maximum 0 1 2
Ammonia (AOB) or nitrite (NOB), mg-N/L
3 4

growth rate (aerobic SRT

control with excess NH4 200
180
A - AOB A - NOB AOB Monod NOB Monod

available) 160

SNPR (mgN/gVSS.d)
140
120
100

• Aggressive SRT control 80

60
40
20

• Oxygen affinity 0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0
DO (mg/L)

• Free ammonia inhibition

of NOB
16
Nitrite-Shunt
• In a fully nitrifying system (no nitrite-shunt), the ratio of
NOB/AOB should equal the ratio of the respective yield
coefficients
For example, if YNOB = 0.09 and YAOB = 0.15, then NOB/AOB = 0.6

• The plant mixed liquor NOB/AOB ratio can be estimated

from a fully-aerated SNR test
NO3PR/NOXPR is linked directly to the ratio NOB/AOB

• If a lower value is measured in a fully-aerated SNR test

on plant mixed liquor, then it is likely that the NOB
population is suppressed and nitrite shunt is occurring

17
St. Petersburg FL – Low DO Mainstream Nitrite
Shunt
7000

Daily Average Airflow (scfm)

6000

5000

4000

3000

2000

1000

0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
Days
Nitrification SND

10

Nitrogen Species, mg/L

6

0
7/28/13 8/4/13 8/11/13 8/18/13 8/25/13 9/1/13
Ammonia Nitrite Nitrate 18
St. Petersburg FL - Inorganic Nitrogen Profile

Unaerated Aerobic 1 Aerobic 2 Aerobic 3

DO = 0.02 ± DO = 0.22 ± DO = 0.12 ± DO = 0.08
0.01 mg/L 0.15 mg/L 0.08 mg/L ± 0.05
mg/L

0.8
HRSD Pilot Plant - AvN Control
Aerobic Fraction
NH4-N
DO = set point NOx-N
10 1.0
0.9
DO 8 0.8
Controller/
PLC 0.7

Aerobic Fraction
Nitrogen (mg/L)
6 0.6
Aerobic 0.5
Duration
Controller/ NH4-N - NOx-N 4 0.4
PLC = setpoint 0.3
2 0.2
NH4-N
0.1
0 0.0
NO2-N
D.O. 2.0
NO3-N

Dissoved Oxygen (mg/L)

1.5
4.0
1.0
3.5

Dissolved Oxygen (mg/L)

0.5
3.0 DO
2.5 0.0

1-hour
2.0
1.5
1.0
M
S Air
0.5
0.0
24-hour
Regmi et al., 2014 20
 AvN Aeration Advantage

Model-based evaluation of mechanisms and benefits of mainstream shortcut nitrogen removal processes (2014), Ahmed Al-Omari, 21
Bernhard Wett, Ingmar Nopens, Haydee De Clippeleir, Mofei Han, Pusker Regmi, Charles Bott, Sudhir Murthy. WWTMOD
Partial Nitritation-Anammox = “Deammonification”

22
Mainstream Deammonification
Four Groups Of Bacteria Involved

NITRITE
HETEROTROPHIC
OXIDIZING
DENITRIFYING
BACTERIA BACTERIA
(NOB)

AMMONIA
OXIDIZING ANAMMOX
BACTERIA BACTERIA
(AOB)

23
 Mainstream Deammonification
Four Groups Of Bacteria Involved
Inhibited by
high
ammonia NITRITE
conc. OXIDIZING HETEROTROPHIC
DENITRIFYING
BACTERIA BACTERIA
(NOB)
Favored
Compet by low
e for DO
nitrite Favored
AMMONIA by no DO
OXIDIZING ANAMMOX
BACTERIA BACTERIA
Grows (AOB)
faster than
NOB at low
DO Inhibited
Requires process control to prevent growth of competing by nitrite
Challenges of Nitrite Shunt/ Mainstream
Deammonification

25
Approaches to Mainstream Nitrite Shunt/
Deammonification

26
Strass WWTP – Single Stage Full Scale
Mainstream Nitrite Shunt/ Deammonification

27
Strass WWTP – Single Stage Full Scale Mainstream
Nitrite Shunt/ Deammonification

28
HRSD Mainstream Nitrite-Shunt + Anammox
Polishing

29
HRSD Mainstream Nitrite-Shunt + Anammox
Polishing

Brown and Caldwell 30

HRSD Mainstream Nitrite-Shunt + Anammox
Polishing
• Nitrogen removal in • Anammox Polishing
nitrite-shunt

31
Presenter contact information

Jose Jimenez
Ph.D., P.E.

Email: jjimenez@brwncald.com