An integrated physical-chemical system for concurrent carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus removal in municipal wastewater treatment plants

Abstract

A substantial quantity of suspended solids (SS) present in municipal wastewater leads to the swift depletion of the ion exchange (IE) capacity of natural zeolites like Clinoptilolite (CIO). This limitation has become the primary factor contributing to the limited adoption of the IE technique within municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, an extensive lab-scale and pilot-scale study conducted over approximately one year has made it possible to efficiently apply the IE system using CIO (main grain size of 0.5–1.0 mm) upstream of the primary sedimentation tank (PST). The primary treated wastewater (PTWW) was introduced to the IE system either by pre-straining or without any pre-treatment. The IE system's capabilities for removing total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and phosphorus (P) while primarily focusing on ammonium (NH4+) recovery were undergone for a detailed investigation. Frequent backwashing, involving intermittent water and air injection, was used to mitigate clogging as the main problem of the IE system for treating PTWW. The results revealed a mean removal efficiency of 85 %, 60 %, 50 %, and 30 % for NH4+, TSS, TCOD, and total phosphorus (TP), respectively, per cycle exclusively for the IE system. As the system scaled up, a substantial reduction was observed in the adsorption capacity, shifting from approximately 12 to 1 g NH4+ (kgCIO)−1. Despite this drawback, the study's finding showed that prolonged treatment of PTWW for NH4+ removal and recovery in municipal WWTPs, besides substantially reducing carbonaceous pollutants, is applicable. Implementing this application will not only decrease the biological treatment costs for municipal wastewater but also yield valuable by-products, such as NH4Cl, which can serve as a foundational material for the production of ammonium chloride fertilizer. Therefore, transitioning to IE systems in municipal WWTPs will diminish the reliance on resource-intensive methods like the Harber-Bosch procedure for producing nitrogen fertilizer.