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

Abstract

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.

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Uri-Carreño, Nerea
Author

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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Nielsen, Per H.
Author

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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Gernaey, Krist V.
Author

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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Domingo-Félez, Carlos
Author

Ye, Jinyu and Mark Jensen, Marlene and Goonesekera, Estelle M. and Yu, Ran and Smets, Barth F. and Valverde-Pérez, Borja and Domingo-Felez, Carlos (2024) Denitrifying communities enriched with mixed nitrogen oxides preferentially reduce N₂O under conditions of electron competition in wastewater. Chemical Engineering Journal, 498: 155292. ISSN 1385-8947

Jankowska, Katarzyna and Domingo-Félez, Carlos and Andres Prado-Rubio, Oscar and Skiadas, Ioannis V. and Woodley, John M. and Pinelo, Manuel (2024) Effect of backwash as a strategy for biofouling control in the submerged ceramic membrane bioreactor for high-density cultivations: Process optimization and fouling mechanism at pilot scale. Separation and Purification Technology, 338: 126428. ISSN 1383-5866

Qiu, Yuge and Ekström, Sara and Valverde-Pérez, Borja and Smets, Barth F. and Climent, Javier and Domingo-Félez, Carlos and Martínez Cuenca, Raúl and Plósz, Benedek G. (2024) Numerical modelling of surface aeration and N2O emission in biological water resource recovery. Water Research, 255: 121398. ISSN 0043-1354

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Flores-Alsina, Xavier
Author

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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