ARS | Publication request: Acclimation of swine effluent sludges and development activities for removal of nitrogen by the anaerobic oxidation of ammonia (Anammox) process in Brazil

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: November 26, 2006
Publication Date: November 26, 2006
Citation: Neto, S., Kunz, A., Vanotti, M.B., Soares, H.M., Mattei, R.M. 2006. Acclimation of swine effluent sludges and development activities for removal of nitrogen by the anaerobic oxidation of ammonia (Anammox) process in Brazil. In: Proceedings of the 30th Interamerican Congress of Environmental Engineering, BR 04327, November 26-30, 2006, Punta del Leste, Uruguay.

Technical Abstract: When residuals from intensive swine production are released without adequate treatment, they represent a significant environmental problem that can cause great environmental impact in rivers and water bodies. Although treatment technologies are well developed for removal of organic load from high-strength wastewaters, there is a lack of systems that can efficiently remove the high nitrogen loads present in the livestock effluent. For this reason, the new ANAMMOX (Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation) process can be a useful technology for animal waste. This is an autotrophic system that consists of the anaerobic removal of ammonia via nitrite coupling. Their application to advanced treatment systems may be possible if such microorganism is found naturally present in environments rich in ammonium, such as in conventional systems used for the treatment of swine manure, and then it is successfully isolated. In this research, the ANAMMOX microorganisms were isolated from sludges of swine manure origin. The farm sludges were first subjected to a process of acclimation. The acclimated sludge was then used for inoculation of tubular reactors containing a non-biodegradable support to enhance biomass retention. Finally, the reactors were operated under ideal conditions to favor development of ANAMMOX. We used two swine sludges with different management history, in Santa Catarina, Brazil. One sludge sample was obtained from an inactive nitrification lagoon and the other sludge sample from an activated sludge system. After 63 days of sludge acclimatization and 150 days under ideal conditions, the removal rate was 140 mg N/L/day at a stoichiometric ratio of ammonia removal to nitrite removal and nitrate production of 1:1.43:0.37 for the sludge obtained from the abandoned nitrification lagoon, that is very similar to the values found in the literature for ANAMMOX (1:1.31:0.26). However, the sludge originated from the system of activated sludge did not present a satisfactory nitrogen removal or stoichiometric coefficient ratios that evidenced the establishment of the ANAMMOX process.