A study on the Migration and Transforming

Discipline of Urine Nitrogen in the Transportation

and Treatment Process of Municipal Wastewater
Wuang Ren*, Pengkang Jin*, Chenggang Liang*, Xiaochang Wang*, Lei Zhang*

* School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Xi’an University of Architecture

and Technology, No 13 Yanta Road, Xi’an 710055, China
(E-mail: flyinsky_911@ sina.com)

Introduction
10000 2500

8000 2000
Research shows that the nitrogen concentration in urine is about 8000-10000mg/L. in the fresh urine the nitrogen are
NH3-N (mg /L)
TN (mg /L)

6000
TN NH3-N
1500
mainly in the form of urea. It is believed that the nitrogen mainly comes from urine which only takes 1% of the
4000 1000
wastewater. The urine flows into the septic tank and then contacts with the sludge in the septic tank. After 10~16 h, it
2000 500

0 0
flows into Wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) through sewage pipe network . In the WWTP, denitrification process
mainly depends on the oxidation ditch and A-A-O reactor which denitrification process mainly focus on the removal
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Date

Black water28.1%
of ammonia nitrogen from sewage. Hence, the study on the migration and transforming characteristic of nitrogen is
（Faeces, Urine , Kichen waste ）
crucial for wastewater treatment process.
Currently, the effluent of wastewater plant containing excessive nitrogen is a common problem. The reason is that
Greywater71.9%
domestic sewage lack of carbon source, but rich of nitrogen source. It can lead to the result that the wastewater fails
to guarantee enough carbon sources for denitrifying bacteria to survive. It also causes the reality that not only the
process fails to meet the demand on denitrification but also water quality hardly meets the compliance.

Figure1: Content of nitrogen in urine

Results & Discussion
1. Collection of urine and Analysis methods 10000
AS dosage (g/L) 10 20 50
10000
AS dosage (g/L) 10 20 50

TN TN
To guarantee the representability in this study, the urine collected is 8000 8000
NH 3 -N (mg /L)

NH 3 -N (mg /L)
mixed with morning and noon urine from a specific group of people. 6000 6000
The total urine nitrogen is represented by TN and the decomposition of
4000 4000
urea is measured by analyzing NH3-N. Potassium sulfate oxidation-
ultraviolet spectrophotometry and Pay reagent luminosity law are using 2000 2000

to analyze TN, NH3-N respectively. 0 0

0 5 10 15 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
Time (d) Time (h)
2. The effect of temperature and pH on urine nitrogen (a) (b)
migration and conversion.
pH=2.5 pH=10 pH=6.5
Figure4:Variation of urea decomposition efficiency under
4℃ 20℃ 30℃
10000
TN
10000
TN
different dosages of activated sludge
8000 8000
Septic tank sludge dosage (g/L) 10 20 50 Septic tank sludge dosage (g/L) 10 20 50
NH 3 -N (mg/L)

NH 3 -N (mg/L)

10000 10000
6000 6000 TN TN
8000 8000
4000 4000
NH 3 -N (mg /L)
NH 3 -N (mg /L)

6000 6000
2000 2000

4000 4000
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
时间（d） 时间（d） 2000 2000

Figure2:The effect of temperature and pH on the ammonia 0

0 5 10 15 20
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
nitrogen concentration Time (d) Time (h)

(a) (b)
Under three temperatures, the content of NH3-N increases slightly and
sustains a relatively low level at which the ammonia nitrogen value is Figure5: Variation of urea decomposition rate under different
far from TN. In an absolutely natural state, urea could rarely convert dosages of septic-tank sludge
into ammonia nitrogen; At the lower pH value, the compositions of
urine tend to be more steady. It can be found out that the dosage of urease is the main factor
It could be concluded that under natural and stable situation, urea influencing the urine hydrolysis degree and the catalysis capacity is
could rarely convert into ammonia nitrogen, determined by its dosage. The activated sludge can promote urine
urea hydrolyzation effectively. The more sludge adding to the samples,
3. Promotion of urea decomposition and nitrogen conversion the faster that the urea decomposes.
The catalysis effect of activated sludge towards urea decomposition is
Urea dosage (mg/L) 10 20 50 Urea dosage (mg/L) 10 20 50 weaker than the direct catalysis of urease, but the catalysis of the
10000 10000
TN TN former one has a continuous effect. The catalytic effect of septic-tank
8000 8000 sludge on urea decomposition is lower than that of activated sludge.
NH 3 -N (mg /L)

NH 3 -N (mg /L)

6000 6000
4. Premier discussion for resource utilizing
4000 4000

2000 2000
MAP precipitation (struvite method) is adopted to recycle N, P from the
urine generated by urea which decomposited by active sludge, Under
0 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24
the condition that pH=5, settling time is 5 minutes, MgCl2 and disodium
Time (d) Time (h)
phosphate were added as magnesium salt and phosphorous source
(a) (b)
with a Mg, N, P proportion of 1.4: 1: 1, the best recovery effect is
Figure3: Decomposition rate of urea at different urease dosages achieved at which the recovery rate of N, P is nearly 95% and 98%.

Conclusions
Under natural condition, urine urea is fairly constant with a lower decomposition rate.
The speed of urine urea hydrolyzes to generate ammonia nitrogen increases respectively under the direct catalysis effect of free urease and the indirect
catalysis effect of microorganisms.

Thanks to conference organizers to provide me with the opportunity to publishing my research results!