Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TreatRec (Interdisciplinary concepts for municipal wastewater treatment and resource recovery. Tackling future challenges)
Période du rapport: 2017-01-01 au 2018-12-31
• Have an understanding of science, policy drivers, technological solutions and the social science aspects associated with the monitoring and treatment of wastewater;
• Have experience of working on and delivering a research project that is aimed to meet the real needs of industrial sector;
• Have formal training in business skills (including project management, IPR, commercial exploitation of research results) .
The core idea of the TreatRec project is the collaboration between industry (ATKINS and AQUAFIN) and academia (Catalan Institute for Water Research-ICRA and University of Girona) where the two sectors work together to identify research questions. Through this communication the project has identified five main technological and knowledge gaps around which the research programme has been built.
Specific scientific objectives of the TreatRec were the following:
• To evaluate technological feasibility and cost-effectiveness of several advanced treatments focusing on nutrient recovery and removal of emerging contaminants
• To improve scientific understanding of the fate and behavior of understudied emerging microcontaminants during wastewater treatment
• To identify the role of each treatment unit within a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) related to the microcontaminants removal, nitrogen and phosphorous recovery or removal with energy consumption, reliability and performance levels
• To investigate the stress conditions that trigger periods of poor wastewater treatment performance in the context of both present day and future scenarios
• To identify the resilience and robustness of the evaluated technologies against changes of environmental conditions
• To encapsulate process knowledge acquired in the project in the form of a decision support system that will allow decision makers to make more qualified decisions
ESR 1. Tackling emerging compounds in WWTP’s. Thesis supervised by AQAFIN, UdG and ICRA
An industrial-scale pilot plant combining a biological activated carbon filter with an ultrafiltration membrane (BioMac) has been designed, built, operated and continuously monitored. The performances of this technology have been investigated focusing specific attention to emerging micropollutants (MPs) removal, in particular Pharmaceutical Active Compounds (PhACs).
ESR 2. Transformation of microcontaminants in wastewater treatment.hesis supervised by ICRA, ATKINS and AQUAFIN
A statistical fingerprinting approach based on LC-HRMS data treatment of wastewater DOM has been developed and tested and the workflow successfully applied to a reverse osmosis, a biological treatment and tertiary treatment involving snad filtration, UV and chlorination.
ESR 3. Optimal configuration of nitrogen and phosphorous recovery schemes within WWTPs.Thesis supervised by UdG and AQUAFIN
A lab-scale one-stage partial nitritation-anammox run on digested sludge liquor unit was successfully assembled and operated. The main attention was paid to the evaluation of the possibility to implement phosphorus recovery after autotrophic nitrogen removal.
P-recovery after the PNA reactor has been successfully tested. The requirements for the recovery of P, N and K after PNA in terms of pH, temperature and Mg2+ dosing were assessed in batch and continuous experiments.
ESR 4. The resilience of wastewater treatment to multiple stress conditions.Thesis supervised by ATKINS and ICRA
A review of resilience at wastewater treatment works has been performed and four key elements have been identified in a resilience assessment: stressors, properties, metrics and measures.
A model-based audit has been performed for the Girona WRRF to assess the ability of current models to provide an objective evaluation of energy reduction strategies. A fully dynamic air distribution model is calibrated for the first time in a full scale application, integrated with a biokinetic process model and a detailed process control model.
ESR 5. Assessment of environmental and socio-economical implications of urban wastewater systems upgrading. Thesis supervised by ICRA, AQUAFIN and UdG
A customized model has been developed in Matlab code which consists of 3 models: the first one estimates concentrations of PhACs at the influent of WWTP’s, the second, estimates the removal of PhACs in WWTP’s and the third, the removal along river stretches
The project contributed to fill in several technological gaps and knowledge needs such as (i) evaluation of state-of-the art technologies for wastewater treatment upgrade for successful removal of emerging microcontaminants, (ii) getting better insight into transformations of organic matter occurring during wastewater treatment, (iii) identification of the best combination of anaerobic ammonium oxidation plus struvite precipitation to increase the phosphate recovery and to minimise ammonium recycles to the water line, (iv) provision of means to risk assess urban wastewater treatments response to current and future stressors in combination and (v) to provide a Decision support system (DSS) development within the wastewater treatment field by involving from the very beginning industrial partners.