Uri-Carreño, Nerea and Nielsen, Per H. and Gernaey, Krist V. and Domingo-Félez, Carlos and Flores-Alsina, Xavier (2024) Nitrous oxide emissions from two full-scale membrane-aerated biofilm reactors. Science of the Total Environment, 908: 168030. ISSN 0048-9697
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This study reports on N2O emissions from two full-scale membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABRs) treating municipal wastewater. The results show that the emission factors for N2O were very similar to each other and below the standard value from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).AI Topics:
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The upcoming change of legislation in some European countries where wastewater treatment facilities will start to be taxed based on direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions will force water utilities to take a closer look at nitrous oxide (N2O) production. In this study, we report for the first time N2O emissions from two full-scale size membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABR) (R1, R2) from two different manufacturers treating municipal wastewater. N2O was monitored continuously for 12 months in both the MABR exhaust gas and liquid phase. Multivariate analysis was used to assess process performance. Results show that emission factors (EFN2O) for both R1 and R2 (0.88 ± 1.28 and 0.82 ± 0.86 %) were very similar to each other and below the standard value from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2019 (1.6 %). More specifically, N2O was predominantly emitted in the MABR exhaust gas (NTRexh) and was strongly correlated to the ammonia/um load (NHx,load). Nevertheless, the implemented Oxidation Reduction Potential (ORP) control strategy increased the bulk contribution (NTRbulk), impacting the overall EFN2O. A thorough analysis of dynamic data reveals that the changes in the external aeration (EA)/loading rate patterns suggested by ORP control substantially impacted N2O mass transfer and biological production processes. It also suggests that NTRexh is mainly caused by ammonia-oxidizing organisms (AOO) activity, while ordinary heterotrophic organisms (OHO) are responsible for NTRbulk. Different methods for calculating EFN2O were compared, and results showed EFN2O would range from 0.6 to 5.5 depending on the assumptions made. Based on existing literature, a strong correlation between EFN2O and nitrogen loading rate (R2 = 0.73) was found for different technologies. Overall, an average EFN2O of 0.86 % N2O-N per N load was found with a nitrogen loading rate >200 g N m−3 d−1, which supports the hypothesis that MABR technology can achieve intensified biological nutrient removal without increasing N2O emissions.
Title | Nitrous oxide emissions from two full-scale membrane-aerated biofilm reactors |
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Creators | Uri-Carreño, Nerea and Nielsen, Per H. and Gernaey, Krist V. and Domingo-Félez, Carlos and Flores-Alsina, Xavier |
Identification Number | 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168030 |
Date | 15 January 2024 |
Divisions | College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Infrastructure and Environment |
Publisher | Elsevier |
Additional Information | Nerea Uri-Carreño gratefully acknowledges the Industrial Ph.D. program's financial support from Innovation Fund Denmark, through the project “MANTRA” (Contract-No: 7091-00038A). Dr. Xavier Flores-Alsina and Prof. Krist Gernaey also thank, the Danida fellowship center (DFC) research project ERASE (Contract-No: 18-M09-DTU). Dr. Carlos Domingo-Félez thanks the Fermentation-based Biomanufacturing Initiative (FBM), grant number NNF17SA0031362. All authors received the financial support of the Miljøministeriets Miljøteknologisk Udviklings og Demonstrationsprogram (MUDP) project NACAT (Contact-No: 2021-20015) |
URI | https://pub.demo35.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/383 |
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Item Type | Article |
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Depositing User | Unnamed user with email ejo1f20@soton.ac.uk |
Date Deposited | 11 Jun 2025 16:37 |
Revision | 25 |
Last Modified | 12 Jun 2025 10:05 |
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