Reducing sewage treatment costs with anammox bacteria

IN OUR HOUSEHOLDS, WE CUT ELECTRICITY COSTS VIA ENERGY-SAVING LAMPS. IN SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS, WE CUT ELECTRICITY COSTS VIA ANAMMOX BACTERIA. THESE RECENTLY-DISCOVERED BUGS EAT NITROGEN IN SEWAGE EXTREMELY EFFICIENTLY, WHICH HAS BEEN EXPLOITED IN SEVERAL INNOVATIVE COST-REDUCING BIOTECHNOLOGIES. ANAMMOX-BASED BIOTECHNOLOGIES HAVE BEEN APPLIED IN FULL SCALE FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS, BUT MANY SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT OPERATORS, DESIGNERS, CONSULTANTS AND INVESTORS ARE STILL UNAWARE OF ITS POTENTIAL.

city:one 2017-11-16 13:14 Vojtěch Kouba, biotechnology expert UCT Prague : Kerstin Zacherl-John, design engineer E&P Anlagenbau GmbH, Germany : Petr Dolejš, environmental engineer, city:one editor Water

In early nineties, Dutch scientist Arnold Mulder discovered, that one of his anaerobic microbial cultures kept removing nitrogen in an unexpected way. Mulder called this process “anaerobic oxidation of ammonium”, or anammox. It is a microbial process, in which anammox bacteria (or archaea) convert ammonia (NH3) and nitrite (NO2-) to dinitrogen gas (N2), thus gaining energy.

Over subsequent two decades, anammox became widely applied for the removal of nitrogen from reject waters from anaerobic digestion (ammonium-rich liquid fraction of anaerobically treated activated sludge). First applications of anammox went to sewage treatment plants receiving wasted activated sludge from adjacent plants, or nitrogen-rich industrial effl uents, and sewage treatment plants with insuffi cient capacity of tanks for nitrifi cation-denitrifi cation. These plants discharge more nitrogen than allowed by the municipal authorities, and face nasty sanctions. Unless plant operators persuade the authorities to elevate their nitrogen limits, one ofthe ways out is to remove part of total nitrogenous load from reject water via anammox. In addition to such cases, anammox is also applied at sewage treatment plants, where operators
are pushed to reduce their treatment costs.

In case of treatment plant in Ingolstadt (Germany), removalof one kilo of nitrogen from reject water via nitrifi cation- denitrifi cation consumes 4 kWh, while anammox consumes 0.8-2 kWh e.g. in Potsdam (Germany) it consumes 1,6 kWh.

Because “anammox” is patented trademark, suppliers call thisprocess “deammonifi cation”. To date, more than 100 sewage treatment plants are equipped with anammox, most of them situated in western Europe, north America and China. Theprice of anammox technology depends on the availability of unoccupied tanks on site, the level of automation, and quality of materials and technology. Anammox also saves organic
carbon and thus more methane can be produced from anaerobicallydigested sewage sludge. 

Municipalities are waking up to the possibilities to reducetheir wastewater treatment bill. Due to the extensive full- scale experience and several different providers, savings provided by anammox are considered to be among the “lowest hanging fruit”.

References of the E&P Anlagenbau realizations

Client Municipality (size of STP) Realization Price (T€) Energie und Wasser Potsdam GmbH, Germany Potsdam Nord (90 000 PE) 2011/2012 1500*StadtWerke Schrobenhausen, Germany Schrobenhausen (55 000 PE) 2015/2016 384 Gemeindwerke Karlsfeld, Germany Karlsfeld (45 000 PE) 2015/2016 385 Abwasserbetrieb der Stadt Rinteln, Germany Rinteln (80 000 PE) 2009 275
Badajoz, Spain Villalba de los Barros, province 015/2016 145** of Badajoz (385 000 PE)

References of company E&P Anlagenbau (Germany); price for engineering, delivery, installation,  ommissioning, documentation, *cconstruction costs and sludge tank included, **Engineering, Commisioning); EO – population equivalent.

Časopis city:one

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