Development of a partial heating system to enhance bio-ammonia production and recovery by anaerobic digestion of nitrogen-rich wastewater: Effect of partial heating modules

The treatment of nitrogen-rich wastewater has drawn increasing attention recently. In this work, a partial heating system has been developed to treat the wastewater with low C/N ratio by anaerobic digestion and simultaneously recover ammonia as a biomass resource. Effects of various heating modules on bio-ammonia production and organic degradation were investigated. The system with single partial heating modules prevailed over the control (without partial heating module). The highest ammonia volatilization rate and total carbon removal ratio obtained in single partial heating modules were elevated by 5.0-folds and 57.9% compared to the control, respectively. Anaerobic digestion system with the dual partial heating module showed similar performance as single partial heating modules with respects to ammonia production and volatilization and the organic degradation. Results demonstrated anaerobic digestion system with partial heating modules considerably enhanced organics removal and simultaneously recovered potential valuable by-products from the wastewater at extremely low C/N ratio. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.