Mitigation of recalcitrant nutrients and organic pollutants from small- to medium-scale biological nutrient removal plant sludge by digester optimization

Digestion of biological nutrient removal (BNR) plant sludge can be challenging, particularly for small- to medium-sized wastewater treatment facilities (WWTF) which often lack the economies of scale, and/or expertise to make digestion feasible. This study compared various types of sludge digestion, sludge retention times (SRTs), and temperatures on the release of recalcitrant nutrients, digestion economics, and digester performance utilizing mixed primary and secondary sludge from a small- to medium-sized BNR facility. Mesophilic anaerobic digestion (AD), cycling aerobic/anoxic (AERO/ANOX) digestion, and sequential anaerobic/aerobic/anoxic (AD/AERO/ANOX) digestion at room and mesophilic temperatures were compared at SRTs between 5 and 20 days. AERO/ANOX digestion was very effective in treating recalcitrant forms of nitrogen and phosphorous by removing up to 87% of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), up to 88 +/- 2% of non-reactive dissolved phosphorous (NRDP). AERO/ANOX digestion also offered the lowest increase in sludge management costs versus the existing no-digestion baseline scenario. ADs removed up to 53 +/- 1% of volatile solids (VS), whereas unheated AERO/ANOX digesters were less effective, removing up to 39 +/- 1% of VS. Sequential AD/AERO/ANOX digesters with a mesophilic second-stage removed up to 61 +/- 3% of VS but had the highest operational and capital costs. Experiments also indicated that significant amounts of orthophosphate (PO43) may be released from digested AERO/ANOX sludge during on-site storage, with longer SRTs releasing PO43 more rapidly than shorter ones. These results are important as more WWTFs deploy BNR to meet increasingly stringent nutrient limits. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.