Ammonium Recovery and Biogas Upgrading in a Tubular Micro-Pilot Microbial Electrolysis Cell (MEC)

Here, a 12-liter tubular microbial electrolysis cell (MEC) was developed as a post treatment unit for simultaneous biogas upgrading and ammonium recovery from the liquid effluent of an anaerobic digestion process. The MEC configuration adopted a cation exchange membrane to separate the inner anodic chamber and the external cathodic chamber, which were filled with graphite granules. The cathodic chamber performed the CO2 removal through the bioelectromethanogenesis reaction and alkalinity generation while the anodic oxidation of a synthetic fermentate partially sustained the energy demand of the process. Three different nitrogen load rates (73, 365, and 2229 mg N/Ld) were applied to the inner anodic chamber to test the performances of the whole process in terms of COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand) removal, CO2 removal, and nitrogen recovery. By maintaining the organic load rate at 2.55 g COD/Ld and the anodic chamber polarization at +0.2 V vs. SHE (Standard Hydrogen Electrode), the increase of the nitrogen load rate promoted the ammonium migration and recovery, i.e., the percentage of current counterbalanced by the ammonium migration increased from 1% to 100% by increasing the nitrogen load rate by 30-fold. The CO2 removal slightly increased during the three periods, and permitted the removal of 65% of the influent CO2, which corresponded to an average removal of 2.2 g CO2/Ld. During the operation with the higher nitrogen load rate, the MEC energy consumption, which was simultaneously used for the different operations, was lower than the selected benchmark technologies, i.e., 0.47 kW/N·m3 for CO2 removal and 0.88 kW·h/kg COD for COD oxidation were consumed by the MEC while the ammonium nitrogen recovery consumed 2.3 kW·h/kg N.

High-Concentration Nitrogen Removal by Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation Process

This experiment aimed to explore the effect of high- concentration nitrogen removal by Anaerobic ammonium oxidation process. The mixed liquor suspended solid(MLSS)was 510 mg/L. In the beginning of the experiment, the inflow concentration rate of ammonia nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen was about 1:1.3 and the total nitrogen concentration was low. When the reactor reached the ideal treatment effect then gradually increased the total nitrogen concentration, until reaching the maximum nitrogen load rate(NLR) of the reactor. In the temperature of 34.4 °C, PH was 7.23, the inflow concentration of ammonia nitrogen was 223.3 mg. N/L, the inflow concentration nitrite nitrogen was 289.7 mg. N/L, the dissolved oxygen (DO) was 2.3 mg. N/L, the nitrogen load rate (NLR) was 6.08 kg. N / (m3. d), the nitrogen removal rate (NRR) was 5.60 kg. N / (m3. d), the total nitrogen (TN) removal rate was 92.2%, under this conditions, the reactor achieved the best effect.