Is the ammonia stripping pre-treatment suitable for the nitrogen removal via partial nitritation-anammox of OFMSW digestate?

Abstract

Treating the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW) can be performed by coupling the anaerobic digestion (AD) and partial nitritation-anammox (PN-AMX) processes for organic matter and nitrogen removal, respectively. Besides, an ammonia stripping (AS) step before the AD benefit the removal of organic matter. In the present study, the operation of two PN-AMX sequencing batch reactors with and without AS pre-treated OFMSW digestate (AS-SBR and nAS-SBR, respectively) was assessed. The specific anammox activity decreased by 90 % for increasing proportions of fed OFMSW in both cases, indicating no differences over the anammox activity whether the AS pre-treatment is implemented or not. For 100 % OFMSW proportion, the AS-SBR achieved better effluent quality than the nAS-SBR (127 ± 88 vs. 1050 ± 23 mg N/L) but with lower nitrogen removal rates (58 ± 8 vs. 687 ± 32 g N/(L·d)). Still, the latter required successive re-inoculations to obtain higher removal rates. Changes in the microbial communities were mainly correlated to sCOD/N ratios in the OFMSW, being Candidatus Brocadia the dominant anamnmox species. The results proved the AS to be a suitable pre-treatment, despite the higher sCOD/N ratios in the OFMSW digestate, achieving good synergy between the PN-AMX and heterotrophic denitrification processes.