Water and Effluent Treatment Magazine
Issue link: https://fhpublishing.uberflip.com/i/391624
OCTOBER 2014 WET NEWS 21 The trend to recover as much nutrients as possible in the wastewater treatment process is on the increase. But what happens if high concentrations of ammonia and phosphorous are present? The challenge: Waste not, want not Wastewater can become a resource while saving energy, says the NUTREC project consortium I n traditional WwTWs the sludge coming from primary and secondary treatments goes to an anaerobic digester to produce biogas. Subsequently, the sludge needs to be dewatered before being reused in soils or deposited in landfills. The reject water resulting from this process has high concentration of ammo- nium and phosphorus, which can drastically increase the total concentration of these nutrients in the biological (secondary) treatments, if recycled without any treatment. When ammonia and phos- phorous are both present at high concentrations, a prior step can Vacuum and Pressure Solutions for Water and Wastewater Applications Low Energy Consumption Green Technologies Low Lifecycle Costs Gardner Denver Ltd Claybrook Drive, Washford Industrial Estate Redditch, Worcestershire B98 0DS, UK Tel. 01527 838200 | Fax. 01527 521140 be included to remove them by adding magnesium or calcium granulates. Due to significant performance and efficiency gains, the consortium believes the technology will represent a modal shi• of wastewater treat- ment practises in the EU and add a significant contribution to the current best available technique. Nutrient recovery from waste- water has been receiving grow- ing interest, driven by stringent nutrient discharge limits from wastewater treatment plants and by the potential to enhance the recovered nutrients, e.g. for application as fertilisers, that can represent an additional rev- enue source to water companies. The consortium behind the NUTREC project – a group of European SME suppliers of water and wastewater treatment tech- nologies – believes there is a major market opportunity in the supply of a novel technology sys- tem for the removal and recovery of nutrients, namely nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P), from wastewater. Recognising that wastewater is a renewable resource, the con- sortium, which includes GreenAqua Solutions, Bioazul, OHT Group and Videncentret, aims to develop, optimise and demonstrate the commercial and technical viability of "a novel green treatment method" that not only treats the wastewater but also recovers added value by through the use of an innovative thermochemical method for stru- vite precipitation and subse- quent ammonia release. INSIGHT SEWAGE & SLUDGE TREATMENT