Resumen de Towards the wastewater treatment plant of the future: integration of carbon redirection and nitrogen recovery technologies
Most of the urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), based on conventional activated sludge (CAS) systems, cannot be considered sustainable since the concept of resources (energy and nutrients) recovery is not taken into account. Notwithstanding, this paradigm can be changed by applying a new treatment concept. New technologies (or a combination of existing ones) are appearing on the scene in the recent years offering both a higher energy production and a recovery of essential nutrients present on water, such as nitrogen and phosphorus.
This work is devoted to studying and validating of a new concept of WWTP, based on the enhancement of resources recovery from wastewater at lower cost and in a sustainable way. In a pilot plant installed in a WWTP in Spai, it was studied the integration of a pre concentration stage to redirect carbon through sludge to its valorisation as biogas (based on bio-sorption) and an ion-exchange unit with the purpose of recovering the inorganic nitrogen forms (e.g. ammonium) to produce fertilisers.
The technical and economic assessment of the proposed scheme and its comparison with conventional configuration confirms the relevant role of new configurations to operate more sustainable and self-efficient plants.
Today, the final justification for this change of concept needs to be found in performance and environmental issues as sorne improvements in the costs are still required in sorne technologies. Nonetheless, this thesis demonstrates that the economic viability for this new configuration is expected at short-term
