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Implications of full-scale implementation of an anammox-based process as

post-treatment of a municipal anaerobic sludge digester operated with co-
digestion

Article  in  Water Science & Technology · March 2014

DOI: 10.2166/wst.2013.795 · Source: PubMed

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 1151 © IWA Publishing 2014 Water Science & Technology | 69.6 | 2014

Implications of full-scale implementation of an anammox-

based process as post-treatment of a municipal anaerobic
sludge digester operated with co-digestion
J. R. Vázquez-Padín, N. Morales, R. Gutiérrez, R. Fernández, F. Rogalla,
J. P. Barrio, J. L. Campos, A. Mosquera-Corral and R. Méndez

ABSTRACT
J. R. Vázquez-Padín (corresponding author)
The feasibility of treating the supernatant of a municipal sludge digester supplemented with co-
N. Morales
substrates by means of an anammox-based process (ELAN®) was tested in Guillarei (NW of Spain). R. Gutiérrez
R. Fernández
Ammonia concentration measured in the supernatant of the sludge digester varied in the range 800– F. Rogalla
Aqualia (FCC Group),
1,500 g N/m3 due to the fact that the sludge produced in the plant was co-digested with wastes Guillarei WWTP, Tui,
coming from surrounding food industries. Treating this supernatant in the ELAN® reactor, nitrogen Spain
E-mail: jvazquezp@fcc.es
removal rates up to 1.1 kg N/(m3 d) were reached in experiments run in a pilot plant reactor operated
J. P. Barrio
in batch mode. No nitrite oxidation was registered after several months of operation despite the Departamento de Explotación de la EPOSH,
Administración Hidráulica de Galicia,
average dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations being 1.5 g O2/m3 and the temperature reaching Santiago de Compostela,
Spain
values as low as 18 C. By keeping the DO set point at 1–2 g O2/m3 and tuning the hydraulic retention
W

J. L. Campos
time, the stability of the process was guaranteed and the presence of co-substrates in the anaerobic A. Mosquera-Corral
R. Méndez
digester did not affect negatively the operation of the autotrophic nitrogen removal process. Due to
University of Santiago de Compostela,
the success of the pilot plant experiment, an upscale of the process to full scale is proposed. Mass Department of Chemical Engineering,
School of Engineering,
balances applied to Guillarei wastewater treatment plant revealed that in the main stream line the Lope Gomez de Marzoa s/n,
E-15782 Santiago de Compostela,
average denitrification rate calculated with the data of year 2011 was 226 kg N/d. Since the nitrogen Spain
removal efficiency is limited by the amount of readily biodegradable organic matter available to carry
out denitrification in the water line, the implementation of an anammox-based process to treat the
supernatant seems the best option to improve the effluent quality in terms of nitrogen content.
The nitrogen removal rate in the sludge line would be 30 times higher than the one in the water line.
The implementation of the process would improve the energetic balance and the nitrogen removal
performance of the plant.
Key words | anaerobic digester supernatant, anammox, co-digestion, granular biomass, pilot scale,
reject water

INTRODUCTION

Anammox-based processes arose in the 1990s as an alterna-
tive to remove nitrogen from anaerobic digester
supernatants. Several strategies have been tested to perform
autotrophic nitrogen removal at the University of Santiago
de Compostela: (a) two-step systems (partial nitrification
and anammox take place in different reactors, the first one
under aerobic conditions and the second one under anoxic
conditions) with anammox reactors based on, e.g. granular
reactors (Dapena-Mora et al. ) or membrane bio-
reactors (Trigo et al. ); and (b) one-step systems
doi: 10.2166/wst.2013.795
(where both processes take place in the same reactor)
based on, e.g. biofilms developed on zeolites (Fernandez
et al. ) or granular reactors (Vázquez-Padín et al. ;
Figueroa et al. ).
Sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) are widely used due
to their flexibility in both two-step and in one-step systems.
The main advantages presented by the SBR are its efficient
retention of the biomass and that it permits a homo-
geneous distribution of substrates and biomass aggregates
inside the reactor. SBRs have been successfully applied
 1152 J. R. Vázquez-Padín et al. | Towards full-scale implementation of the ELAN® process Water Science & Technology | 69.6 | 2014

both for partial nitrification (Gali et al. ; Vázquez- This stoichiometry was compared in Table 1 with the
Padín et al. a; Ganigué et al. ) and anammox stoichiometry of the traditional biological combination of
(Strous et al. ; Lopez et al. ) steps in the two- nitrification–denitrification over nitrate. For this purpose,
step autotrophic nitrogen removal strategy. SBR for com- methanol was used as carbon source and 100% ammonium
bined partial nitrification/anammox with continuous removal from wastewater and therefore optimal perform-
feeding and intermittent aeration in one-step systems ance of the plant was assumed
were implemented on several full-scale plants (Wett

). The so-called DEMON® system uses pH to control NHþ
4 þ 1:39O2 þ HCO3 þ 1:43CH3 OH
the two steps of the autotrophic nitrogen removal process ! 0:37N2 þ 0:26 C5 H7 O2 N þ 4:45H2 O þ 1:12CO2 (2)
in the same reactor (Wett ).
The start-up of the first full-scale anammox plant treat-
The introduction of the ELAN® process brings two
ing the supernatant of a sludge digester lasted for several
important advantages for WWTP maintenance viability in
years due to the slow growth rate of the involved microor-
comparison to the traditional nitrogen removal pathway:
ganisms (van der Star et al. ). Nowadays, the
less energy demand and lower biomass production. More-
availability of already developed inoculums in existing
over, by the application of the ELAN® process no organic
plants shortened those start-up times and circa 50 anammox
matter is needed and therefore this organic matter can be
full-scale plants are already running all over the world. The
used either to achieve less nitrogen content in the final efflu-
introduction of anammox-based processes in the sludge line
ent of the plant (by increasing denitrification in the water
as a post-treatment of the anaerobic sludge digester would
line) or to generate more methane in the anaerobic digester
bring wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) closer to
when available in the plant.
energy autarky (Wett ; Siegrist et al. ).
In some cases, sludge digesters are supplied with co-sub-
The process based on one-stage granular systems devel-
strates, which are wastes produced in industrial processes,
oped by Aqualia with the know-how of the University of
especially in the food industry, which significantly increase
Santiago de Compostela has been called ELAN® (‘ELimina-
the nitrogen concentration to be treated. The introduction
ción Autótrofa de Nitrógeno’ in Spanish, i.e. ‘autotrophic
of the anammox process as a post-treatment would open
nitrogen removal’). Previously to this development, high
the possibility to keep on adding co-substrates and lowering
and stable nitrogen removal rates were obtained in granular
the energy gap in the plant without compromising the qual-
SBR operated in aerobic conditions (Vázquez-Padín et al.
ity of the final effluent of the WWTP.
). In these systems, stratification of bacterial popu-
In the present work, the applicability of an anammox-
lations in the formed biofilm occurs allowing the partial
based process at pilot scale to treat the effluent of a munici-
nitrification (aerobic) and the anammox processes (anoxic)
pal sludge digester operated with co-digestion was studied in
to take place in a one stage reactor. The outer layer of the
Guillarei WWTP located in the NW of Spain. The obtained
granule is enriched in ammonia oxidizing bacteria whereas
results will be used for the process scale up.
the inner anoxic core of the granule is enriched in anammox
biomass (Vázquez-Padín et al. b). The whole stoichi-
ometry of the combined autotrophic nitrogen removal
process called ELAN® fits the following stoichiometric MATERIALS AND METHODS
equation
Description of the pilot plant operation

NHþ
4 þ 0:80O2 þ1:11HCO3 ! 0:009C5 H7 O2 N þ 0:028
CH2 O0;15 N þ 0:44N2 þ 0:11NO
3 þ 2:50H2 O þ 1:04CO2 The ELAN® process was carried out at pilot scale in a
(1) sequencing batch reactor with granular biomass (Figure 1).

Table 1 | Stoichiometry comparison of nitrification–denitrification and ELAN® processes to remove nitrogen

Processes O2 consumption (kg O2/kg N) COD consumption (kg COD/kg N) CO2 emission (kg CO2/kg N) Biomass yield (kg VSS/kg N)

Nitrification–denitrification 3.18 4.9 3.52 2.11

®
ELAN 1.83 0 3.26 0.12
 1153 J. R. Vázquez-Padín et al. | Towards full-scale implementation of the ELAN® process Water Science & Technology | 69.6 | 2014

Figure 1 | Images of the pilot plant operated in Guillarei WWTP and of the aspect of the granular biomass performing the ELAN® process.

The operational cycle of the SBR was distributed in the fol- AORðgNHþ4 -N=ðL  dÞÞ
lowing stages (Figure 2). ¼ ðNH4 -Ninf –NHþ
þ
4 -Neff ΔN=2:3  0:26ΔN=2:3Þ=HRT
The volume of the SBR was 200 L and the volume (4)
exchange ratio was of 20%. The control strategy was to
keep the dissolved oxygen (DO) set point at 1–2 mg O2/L 
NORðgNO
2 -N=ðL  dÞÞ ¼ ðNO3 -Neff 0:26ΔN=2:3Þ=HRT
and to adjust the nitrogen loading rate by modifying the
(5)
hydraulic retention time (HRT) in order to ensure a nitro-
gen removal rate value higher than 80%. The feed was
the supernatant of the anaerobic digester of the WWTP ANRðgN=ðL  dÞÞ ¼ ΔN=HRT (6)
of Guillarei treating sludge and food-industry waste as co-
substrate (Table 1). The amount of co-substrate added to NHþ4 -Ninf being the ammonium concentration in the
the anaerobic digester corresponded to 20% on a volu- influent (mg N/L); NHþ  
4 -Neff, NO2 -Neff, NO3 -Neff the
metric basis. ammonium, nitrite and nitrate concentrations in the effluent
The reactor was seeded with 10 g volatile suspended (mg N/L).
solids (VSS)/L of granular biomass produced in a previous
research project performed in the municipal WWTP of
Analytical methods
Vigo, treating also the supernatant an anaerobic sludge
digester (Vázquez-Padín et al. ).
The concentrations of volatile solids (VS), total and volatile
suspended solids (TSS and VSS), sludge volumetric index
Calculations
(SVI), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and alkalinity
content were determined according to Standard Methods
Ammonia and nitrite oxidation rates (AOR and NOR,
(APHA-AWWA-WPCF ). Ammonium, nitrite, nitrate,
respectively) and nitrogen removal rate by anammox bac-
total nitrogen (TN) and chemical oxygen demand (COD)
teria (ANR) were estimated based on nitrogen balances
concentrations were determined with ‘Dr Lange’ kits; sulfa-
and stoichiometry (Vázquez-Padín et al. )
nilamide was added to the nitrate kit in order to avoid its
interference with nitrite.
ΔN ðmgN=LÞ
þ
(3)
 
¼ ½NHþ
4 -Ninf ðNH4 -Neff þNO3 -Neff þNO3 -Neff Þ

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Operation of the pilot plant

The pilot plant was operated for 330 days installed in the
WWTP of Guillarei. By tuning the HRT, which ranged
between 0.8 and 1.5 days, while keeping the DO concen-
Figure 2 | Operational cycle distribution of the ELAN® system. tration between 1 and 2 mg O2/L following the control
 1154 J. R. Vázquez-Padín et al. | Towards full-scale implementation of the ELAN® process
strategy described by Vázquez-Padín et al. b, the nitro-
gen removal rate reached values higher than 1 kg N/(m3 d)
while keeping the nitrogen removal percentage along the
entire operation at values higher than 80% (Figure 3).
The obtained results revealed that a mean nitrogen
removal rate of 800 g N/(m3 d) was maintained stably. The
TN concentration of the digester supernatant was 1,122 ±
271 g N/m3; in the effluent of the pilot plant, the average
concentrations of ammonium, nitrite and nitrate were
148 ± 44 g N/m3, 2 ± 1 g N/m3 and 53 ± 25 g N/m3,
respectively. Besides the 82% of nitrogen removal, 40% of
the total fed COD (the mean concentration in the super-
natant was of 873 g COD/m3) was also removed. No
nitrite oxidation activity was registered during the whole
experiment.
Regarding the reactor operation and its stability, it has to
be pointed out that the temperature varied between 18 and
W
31 C since the pilot plant was not heated and the reactor
was not well isolated (Figure 4). No influence in the nitrogen
removal capacity was observed despite the fact that the
Figure 3 | Evolution of the nitrogen removal rate (NRR, •) and the HRT (─) along the pilot
plant operation.
Figure 4 | Evolution of DO concentration (*) and temperature (♦) along the pilot plant
operation.
Water Science & Technology | 69.6 | 2014
temperature drop in winter was significant. The high
amount of biomass present in the reactor could compensate
the specific activity decrease caused by the low temperatures
in winter.
During the reactor operation, both the biomass con-
tent in the reactor and its SVI value, were stable with
averaged values of 12 ± 2 g VSS/L and 36 ± 6 mL/g
TSS, respectively (Figure 5). No sludge wastages were car-
ried out from the reactor, biomass washout only took
place during the withdrawal phase of the SBR cycle.
The TSS content in the effluent was on average 0.26 g
TSS/L, a value slightly lower than the one measured in
the influent: 0.35 g TSS/L. The mean diameter of the
granular biomass was 3 mm (this value was obtained on
a volumetric basis) along the whole operation. The
settling velocity of the granular biomass was higher
than 5 m/h.
Estimation of the nitrogen removal capacity by following
the online conductivity measurement
The nitrogen removal rate of ANR was estimated following
two different strategies: first, by comparing ammonium,
nitrite and nitrate concentrations in the inlet and outlet of
the ELAN reactor according to Equation (6) and secondly,
according to the conductivity drop along the reaction
phase of the cycle assuming that all the nitrogen gas was
produced by those microorganisms. It has to be pointed
out that all the given conductivity values are referred to a
W
temperature of 25 C. This conductivity drop (according to
the stoichiometry aforementioned in Equation (1)) is
mainly related to the conversion of ammonium and bicar-
bonate ions, both present in the anaerobic digester
supernatant, into nitrogen gas and biomass, respectively.
Conductivity values were already reported as being an
alternative to ammonium measurements in systems
Figure 5 | Evolution of the biomass concentration (♦) and SVI (*) along the pilot plant
operation.
 1155 J. R. Vázquez-Padín et al. | Towards full-scale implementation of the ELAN® process Water Science & Technology | 69.6 | 2014

Figure 6 | (a) Nitrogen species evolution along an operational cycle in the ELAN® reactor, NHþ  
4 (▪), NO2 (▴), NO3 (▵) and N2 (○), the trend line and slope value correspond to N2 production;
⋄
(b) evolution of the conductivity value ( ) along an operational cycle in the ELAN® reactor. The slope of the curve describing the conductivity versus time along the reaction
phase allows estimation of the nitrogen removal rate in the reactor when multiplying it by the ratio: 0.107 (g N/L)/(mS/cm).

g N cm m2
× 0:1
0:44 mol N2 × 28 g N=L
mol L ¼ 0:107 (7)
2 2 2 mS
mS m mS m mS m
0:11 mol NO
3 ×7:14  1:11 mol HCO
3 × 4:45  1 mol NHþ
4 × 7:34
mol mol mol

performing autotrophic nitrogen removal processes ( Joss
et al. ). The molar conductivities of the bicarbonate,
W
ammonium and nitrate ions normalized at 25 C are 4.45;
7.34 and 7.14 (mS m2/mol), respectively (Lide ; Levlin
).
The ratio –0.107 (g N/L)/(mS/cm) allows us to estimate
the nitrogen removal rate by ANR when multiplying it by the
slope of the conductivity drop along the reaction phase
(Figure 6), as described in Equation (8)
   
gN g N=L
Nitrogen removal rate ¼ 0:107
Ld mS=cm
 
mS=cm
× Conductivity slope
d organic matter available to carry out denitrification in
When comparing the results obtained by laboratory
analysis to determine the nitrogen removal capacity of the
reactor (according to Equation (6)) with the values esti-
mated by ‘the conductivity vs time slope’, the difference
was on average only 6%. This demonstrates that the latter
method is also applicable for reactor surveillance at any
scale, keeping in mind that a conductivity probe can be
easily found in most of the reactors carrying out autotrophic
nitrogen removal processes.
Scale up to full scale in Guillarei WWTP
The data obtained at pilot scale demonstrated the applica-
bility, stability and the robustness of the ELAN® process
when treating wastewaters with ammonium concentrations
W
up to 1,500 mg N/L and at temperatures as low as 18 C.
From the data obtained, a design calculation of a full-scale
ELAN® reactor to treat the totality of the anaerobic sludge
digester supernatant flow in Guillarei WWTP was per-
formed, choosing as a critical design parameter the
nitrogen removal rate. The value selected for the design in
accordance with the experimentation at pilot scale was
0.6 kg N/(m3 d).
The main nitrogen species concentrations for the
water and sludge line of the Guillarei WWTP are given
in Figure 7. The nitrogen removal efficiency of the
WWTP is limited by the amount of readily biodegradable
(8)
the water line. The BOD5/TN ratio of primary treated
wastewater ranged throughout the year between 1.7 to
3.4 g BOD5/g TN. These values highlight the difficulties
to achieve significant percentages of nitrogen removal.
Therefore, in order to improve the quality of the effluent,
the most suitable option is the implementation of the
ELAN® process in the sludge line. This implementation
would allow removing up to 67 kg N/d (Table 2, this
value was estimated assuming 86% of TN removal effi-
ciency in ELAN® reactor for the treatment of the
anaerobic digester supernatant), which represents almost
a third of the amount of nitrogen denitrified in the water
line (226 kg N/d). Under these conditions, the TN concen-
tration expected in the effluent would decrease from 15 to
13 g N/m3. Moreover, since the ELAN® process requires
 1156 J. R. Vázquez-Padín et al. | Towards full-scale implementation of the ELAN® process Water Science & Technology | 69.6 | 2014

Figure 7 | Mass balances of Guillarei WWTP (TN ¼ total nitrogen, VS ¼ volatile solids). Comparison of the composition of the treated water with and without implementing the ELAN®
process in the sludge line (average values from year 2011).

Table 2 | Characterization of the anaerobic sludge digester supernatant of Guillarei WWTP digester supernatant with the ELAN® reactor. The
implementation of the process will require the construc-
Parameter Units Concentration
tion of two tanks: an equalization tank and an ELAN®
NHþ
4 g N/m 3
850–1,500 reactor. The equalization tank is needed since the centri-
3
Total COD g COD/m 640–970 fuges did not dehydrate sludge 24 h per day and
Soluble COD g COD/m3 296–626 therefore a buffer tank is needed to ensure the availability
3
TSS g TSS/m 130–585
VSS g VSS/m3 120–490
Conductivity mS/cm 6.0–10.2
Table 3 | Comparison of the nitrogen removal performances of the activated sludge pro-
Alkalinity g IC/m3 712–1,356 cess (water line) with the autotrophic nitrogen removal process applied in the
sludge line to treat the anaerobic digester supernatant (HET ¼ heterotrophic
denitrification, AMX ¼ autotrophic denitrification by ANR)

less oxygen than the traditional nitrification–denitrification Water line ELAN®

pathway, 184 kg O2/d would be saved
Reactor volume m3 9562 115
  Nitrogen denitrified kg N/d 226 (HET) 67 (AMX)
kg N kg O2 kg O2 kg O2
67 4:57  1:83 ¼ 184 (9) Ammonium oxidized kg N/d 630 (to NO
3) 43 (to NO
2)
d kg N kg N d
3
Nitrogen removal kg N/(m d) 0.02 0.60
According to Table 3, with only 1% of the volume of rate

the activated sludge bioreactor, 30% extra nitrogen can be Nitrogen oxidation kg N/(m3 d) 0.06 0.37
rate
removed in the sludge line when treating the anaerobic
 1157 J. R. Vázquez-Padín et al. | Towards full-scale implementation of the ELAN® process
of anaerobic digester supernatant to be fed in the ELAN®
reactor.
CONCLUSIONS
The fact that the ELAN® process (based on a granular SBR
reactor) removes nitrogen without the need of an organic
carbon source will allow the improvement of the nitrogen
removal performance of the WWTPs optimizing at the
same time the energetic resources. Nitrogen removal rates
up to 1.1 kg N/(m3 d) with more than 80% nitrogen removal
were achieved. Those rates can be estimated by the slope of
the curve conductivity vs time along an operational cycle.
The implementation of the ELAN® process at full scale
in Guillarei WWTP would improve the final effluent quality
by decreasing its nitrogen content. This is especially useful
in Galicia, located in NW Spain, where the BOD5/TN
ratio is generally low and where therefore the denitrification
capacity of the plants is normally limited by the amount of
BOD5 available. The introduction of the ELAN® process
in the sludge line of Guillarei WWTP will open the possi-
bility to keep on adding co-substrates to the anaerobic
digester without affecting the final quality of the effluent
and lowering the energy gap of the wastewater treatment
process.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy
and Competitiveness through the Centro para el Desarrollo
Tecnológico Industrial (project ID: 20110479). The authors
gratefully acknowledge Augas de Galicia and the Adminis-
tración Hidráulica de Galicia and the staff of the Guillarei
WWTP for their collaboration and the University of Vigo
for the automatization, control and communication system
of the pilot plant.
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First received 6 August 2013; accepted in revised form 4 December 2013. Available online 19 December 2013

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