Title
Biotrickling Filtration for the Reduction of N2O Emitted during Wastewater Treatment: Results from a Long-Term In Situ Pilot-Scale Testing
Author
Han, Heejoo (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Kim, Daehyun D. (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Song, Min Joon (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Yun, Taeho (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Yoon, Hyun (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology; Cornell University)
Lee, Hong Woon (Daega Powder Systems Co., Seoul)
Kim, Young Mo (Hanyang University)
Laureni, M. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering)
Yoon, S.Y. (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
Date
2023
Abstract
Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are a major source of N2O, a potent greenhouse gas with 300 times higher global warming potential than CO2. Several approaches have been proposed for mitigation of N2O emissions from WWTPs and have shown promising yet only site-specific results. Here, self-sustaining biotrickling filtration, an end-of-the-pipe treatment technology, was tested in situ at a full-scale WWTP under realistic operational conditions. Temporally varying untreated wastewater was used as trickling medium, and no temperature control was applied. The off-gas from the covered WWTP aerated section was conveyed through the pilot-scale reactor, and an average removal efficiency of 57.9 ± 29.1% was achieved during 165 days of operation despite the generally low and largely fluctuating influent N2O concentrations (ranging between 4.8 and 96.4 ppmv). For the following 60-day period, the continuously operated reactor system removed 43.0 ± 21.2% of the periodically augmented N2O, exhibiting elimination capacities as high as 5.25 g N2O m-3·h-1. Additionally, the bench-scale experiments performed abreast corroborated the resilience of the system to short-term N2O starvations. Our results corroborate the feasibility of biotrickling filtration for mitigating N2O emitted from WWTPs and demonstrate its robustness toward suboptimal field operating conditions and N2O starvation, as also supported by analyses of the microbial compositions and nosZ gene profiles.
Subject
activated sludge
biotrickling filtration
in situ pilot test
metagenome
nitrous oxide
nitrous oxide reductase
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d633e5b4-4033-46d3-a9a3-5fb93ecd50af
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c08818
Embargo date
2023-08-21
ISSN
0013-936X
Source
Environmental Science & Technology (Washington), 57 (9), 3883-3892
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Part of collection
Institutional Repository
Document type
journal article
Rights
© 2023 Heejoo Han, Daehyun D. Kim, Min Joon Song, Taeho Yun, Hyun Yoon, Hong Woon Lee, Young Mo Kim, M. Laureni, S.Y. Yoon