Versatility of n-DAMO process in wastewater treatment: from mathematical modelling to experimental investigations

Due to serious eutrophication in water bodies, nitrogen removal has become a critical stage of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, the conventional biological nitrogen removal process is suffering several major drawbacks, including substantial aeration consumption, high fugitive greenhouse gas emissions, requirement for external carbon sources, excessive sludge production and low energy recovering efficiency, thus unable to satisfy the escalating industrial needs.

Recently, the discovery of anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) bacteria has promoted the development of autotrophic nitrogen removal, which could partially solve the problems associated with conventional nitrogen processes. However, the applications of anammox to treat wastewater have been hindered mainly by the unsatisfactory effluent quality with nitrogen removal efficiency below 80%. The recent discovery of nitrate/nitrite-dependent anaerobic methane oxidation (n-DAMO) as described in Chen Cai’s presentation on AOM provided new opportunities to remove this barrier, by utilizing methane as an alternative carbon source. In addition to capacity of removing nitrogen, n-DAMO process also possesses significant potential for dissolved methane removal, which is a regular but unsolved problem for anaerobic process. 

Hence, this presentation aims to describe versatile applications (nitrogen and dissolved methane removal) of n-DAMO process from mathematical modelling to experimental investigations. The results can potentially be applied to advance the nitrogen removal technologies, reduce the carbon footprint, and save the organic carbon consumption in WWTPs.