Quantification method of N2O emission from full-scale biological nutrient removal wastewater treatment plant by laboratory batch reactor analysis

Abstract

This study proposes a simplified method for the quantification of N2O emission from a biological nutrient removal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The method incorporates a laboratory-scale batch reactor which had almost the same operational (wastewater and sludge flow rates) condition of a unit operation/process of the WWTP. Cumulative N2O emissions from the batch reactor at the corresponding hydraulic retention times of the full-scale units (primary and secondary clarifiers, pre-anoxic, anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic basins) were used for the quantification of N2O emission. The analysis showed that the aerobic basin emitted 95% of the total emission and the emission factor (yield) reached 0.8% based on the influent nitrogen load. The method successfully estimated N2O emission from the WWTP and it has shown advantages in measurement time and cost over the direct field measurement (floating chamber) method.