Effluent pH correlates with electrochemical nitrogen recovery efficiency at pilot scale operation

A bipolar electrodialysis (BP-ED) pilot plant including 3.15 m2 of cation exchange membrane and bipolar membrane each was operated for ammonia recovery. The pilot treated source-separated diluted urine (1 gNH4+/L). Previously found set operation parameters for lab-scale such as current density and nitrogen load did not directly influence the stack performance. However, the effluent pH was directly related to the removal efficiency of the system. 80% nitrogen removal was achieved at a set effluent pH of 4. Operating under an effluent pH control strategy was more effective to control NH4+ removal than controlling current density or nitrogen loading, as it accounts for fluctuation in wastewater availability and composition. The pilot plant removed up to 88% of the NH4+ from urine and recovered around 700 g/day (from 1 m3 of urine). This was a significant improvement compared to the pilot plant previous performance on digestate. The energy consumption was around 13 Wh/gN. The overall current efficiency was ∼40% with most losses caused by parasitic ionic shortcut currents occurring at the hydraulic manifolds of the BP-ED stack. Therefore, the energy demand can be further decreased by preventing these ionic shortcuts in the new cell designs.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Rodrigues, Mariana, Molenaar, Sam, Barbosa, Joana, Sleutels, Tom, Hamelers, Hubertus V.M., Buisman, Cees J.N., Kuntke, Philipp
Format:	Article/Letter to editor biblioteca
Language:	English
Subjects:	Nitrogen recovery, Pilot operation, Upscaling electrodialysis,
Online Access:	https://research.wur.nl/en/publications/effluent-ph-correlates-with-electrochemical-nitrogen-recovery-eff
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