CLONIC - CLOSING THE NITROGEN CYCLE
FROM URBAN LANDFILL LEACHATE BY
BIOLOGICAL NITROGEN REMOVAL OVER
NITRITE AND THERMAL TREATMENT
LIFE03 ENV/E/000140
Project description Environmental issues Beneficiaries Administrative data R e a d m o r e Contact details:
Project Manager: Elena JIMÉNEZ COLOMA
Tel: +34 93 247 91 00
Fax: +34 93 245 30 38
Email: [email protected]
Project description:
Background
Wastewater generated in an urban landfill (i.e. 'leachate') can present high
contaminant levels. This is mainly due to the high organic matter (with a very low
biodegradable fraction), nitrogen and salt content. One of the most complex
problems is the removal of nitrogen. The difficulties of eliminating nitrogen,
which is almost entirely composed of ammonium, are caused by: - A high
nitrogen concentration, which increases over time. - A low carbon-nitrogen (C:N)
ratio. The available organic matter for denitrification purposes using a classical
activated sludge process is not enough to ensure high denitrification efficiencies.
- The use of physical-chemical treatments (i.e. ammonia stripping plus
ammonium sulphate recovery) present high technical and manipulation
complications because of control, stability and hazard aspects. In addition, the
removal the high salt content mainly relies on the use of filtration processes.
Management and treatment of this effluent is therefore a costly exercise. For
these reasons, the application of innovative techniques to reduce the economical
and environmental impact of treating landfill leachates has to be considered. The
leachate treatment must be applied in order to solve the different aspects of the
problem: i) the high nitrogen contents, ii) the non-biodegradable organic matter
increasing over time, iii) the high contents of inorganic salts (i.e. chloride). Where
it is not possible to solve the problem holistically by applying a unique
technology, a combination of different physical, biological and chemical
technologies could be a suitable option to reduce the contamination levels of
leachates. Objectives
The objective of the CLONIC project was to demonstrate the effectiveness and
environmental benefits of an innovative process (PANI/SBR/ANOMMOX and
thermal dry) for the treatment of leachate. Treatments based on a partial
biological autotrophic oxidation of ammonium to nitrite (PANI-SBR process),
followed by an autotrophic anaerobic ammonium oxidation via nitrite (Anammox
process), were to be studied as a more sustainable and cheaper alternative for
the nitrogen removal from urban landfill leachates. Following this, thermal
drying treatment using biogas as an energy source was to be carried out in order
to retain the salt in the dry powder produced. Results
The CLONIC project has successfully demonstrated the feasibility and the
environmental benefits of leachate treatment with the PANI-SBR-ANAMMOX and
thermal drying process. During the operational phase, the feasibility of PANI-SBR
applied to leachates directly, followed by the ANAMMOX process was
demonstrated; nitrogen removal of 98% was achieved. The Thermal Drying
technology has shown to be an effective process for salinity influents, as all the
salts were withheld in the solid phase, and the gaseous emissions had a pollutant
concentration much lower than the legal limits (details of the atmospheric
emissions produced by the thermal drying plant during the operational phase are
presented in a table on page 9 of the Layman's report). In comparison to current
leachate treatments, the new combination of these two technologies present
numerous advantages. The environmental benefits are as follows: - In
comparison with physico-chemical treatments, the overall operation is reduced
due to the fact that reagents are not used and by-products of difficult
el i mination/tre at m e n t , s u c h as am mo n i a s u l p h a t e , a r e n o t p r o d u c e d . - I n
comparison with biological treatments, the new process needs 35% less aeration
than a conventional biological nitrification. - The production of biomass is lower
than in converntional biological treatments. - The combination of the
technologies PANI-SBR-ANAMMOX + thermal drying allows for the closing of
the nitrogen cycle, releasing nitrogen into the atmosphere. An environmental
analysis (using FLEXRIS methodology) was carried out in order to evaluate and
compare environmental and economical costs of a conventional leachate
treatment, consisting of OHP plus NH4 Stripping, versus CLONIC treatment
(PANI-SBR-ANAMMOX+ Thermal Drying). The results showed an environmental
cost of 0,02566 €/L for the conventional treatment and 0,013315 €/L for the
CLONIC treatment, which implies that the CLONIC process achieves an
improvement of 48%. The application of the biological process
PANI-SBR-ANAMMOX for the treatment of leachate is what makes the CLONIC
project particularly innovative. The Anammox method had already been tested in
some previous experiments, but not coupled to a PANI-SBR process and not for
leachate treatment. Although the project focused on leachate treatment, the
biological process developed has a wide range of applications because it can be
adjusted to any effluent with high contents of ammonia and salts, such as waste
water, anaerobic digestion effluents, pig slurry or industrial processes. The
stakeholders of this technology are waste management companies, WWTP,
stakeholders of this technology are waste management companies, WWTP,
certain industries and the agricultural sector (especially for pig slurry).
Furthermore, although it has been widely used in other sectors such as ceramics
and food, this was the first time that the thermal drying technology was used for
leachate treatment. Although the CLONIC project has successfully demonstrated
the processes at semi-industrial scale, the continuous connection of the
combined processes has not been fully achieved at full scale. For this reason,
and in view of the very successful results obtained in the CLONIC project, the
beneficiary, CESPA, and partner, LEQUIA-UdG, will continue the study of the
PANI-SBR-ANAMMOX process with the aim of exploring the technology at
industrial scale. In this second CLONIC project stage, it is foreseen to scale-up
the 500 L pilot plant to a full scale plant. This new project, called PANAMMOX
(Partial nitritation and anaerobic ammonium oxidation for landfill leachate
treatment by means of PANI-SBR and ANAMMOX processes), has been funded by
the Spanish government through the PROFIT programme of the Ministerio de
Educación y Ciencia. Top
Environmental issues addressed:
Themes
Water - Waste water treatment
Keywords
waste water treatment‚ urban area‚ landfill leachate Target EU Legislation
Waste Directive 1999/31 - Landfill of waste (26.04.1999)
Natura 2000 sites
Not applicable
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Beneficiaries:
Coordinator
CESPA GROUP
Type of organisation
Description
Partners
SME Small and medium sized enterprise
The firm CESPA GROUP is a private waste
treatment company. LEQUIA-UdG (Universidat Girona), Spain
AGBAR Foundation-Barcelona, Spain Top
Administrative data:
Project reference
Duration
Total budget
EU contribution
Project location
LIFE03 ENV/E/000140
01-AUG-2003 to 31-MAY -2007
1,310,932.00 €
545,371.00 €
Cataluña(España),Comunidad
Valenciana(España)
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Read more:
Project web site
Publication: After-LIFE
Communication Plan
Publication: After-LIFE
Communication Plan
Publication: Article-Paper
Publication: Article-Paper
Publication: Layman report
Publication: Layman report
Project's website Title: After-LIFE Communication Plan (ES)
Year: 2006 No of pages: 2 Title: After-LIFE Communication Plan (EN)
Year: 2006 No of pages: 2 Title: Journal: environmental technology. Title:
A model for the simulation of the SHARON
process: pH as a key factor environmental
technology. Title: Journal: "Nutrient Management in
Wastewater Treatment Processes and Recycle
Streams". October 2005. Year: 2005 Title: Layman report (EN) Year: 2006 No of
pages: 9 Title: Layman report (ES) Year: 2006 No of
pages: 10 Top
Project description Environmental issues Beneficiaries Administrative data R e a d m o r e