Ammonia Nitrogen Removal and Recovery from Swine Wastewater by Microwave Radiation

Abstract

Microwave (MW) radiation was developed to remove and recover ammonia nitrogen in the real swine wastewater. The effect of operating parameters of MW radiation such as initial pH, power, radiation time, aeration, and stirring for removal ammonia nitrogen in swine wastewater was determined. The pH, radiation time, and power were significantly influenced on the removal of ammonia nitrogen, and aeration and stirring showed relatively minor effect on the removal of ammonia nitrogen. Optimum condition was achieved to retrieve the nitrogen efficiently at pH 11, 700 W for 5 min in MW radiation process. Through this process, 83.1% of ammonia nitrogen concentration was reduced in swine wastewater and also 82.6% of ammonia nitrogen was recovered as ammonium sulfate at the optimized condition. The high ammonia removal and recovery efficiency of the MW radiation method indicated that MW radiation was an effective technique to remove and recover ammonia nitrogen in the swine wastewater.