E2.07 Lawrence 2016 ReNUWIt Annual Meeting Poster

Anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) is the basis for an innovative treatment process for the removal of reactive nitrogen from wastewater effluent. Unlike the traditional nitrification/denitrification process that requires a significant amount of aeration and supplemental organic carbon sources, the anammox process converts ammonia and nitrite directly into nitrogen gas with a lower aeration requirement and no organic carbon supplement.1
The bacteria responsible for anammox are very sensitive to varying substrate concentrations within wastewater streams at municipal wastewater treatment plants. This leads to a slew of operational challenges for the technology at municipal treatment plants.2 The zeolite-anammox system is a novel method not only for the stabilization of substrate concentrations within municipal wastewater streams, but also for the stabilization of anammox bacteria themselves. A comprehensive understanding of:
• Zeolites’ cation exchange capacity
• Microbial community structures on zeolites’ outer surface
within the zeolite-anammox system will help to optimize the technology and promote its wide scale adoption at municipal wastewater treatment plants.