Published by Ahmed Khafagy, Technical support Team
We have a river water plant which treats the river water to drinking water, using the ultrafiltration (UF) system.
The intake water has high ammonia content.
What is the best way to remove the ammonia or reduce it to drinking water levels?
Hello Ahmed, Ozone is one way to reduce the ammonia and if your flow rates are high it would be best that you try it out on a pilot scale first to get the dosage right.
Published by Joe Skaria, CEO at Good Life Products
Ahmed, Ammonia is extremely toxic to aquatic life, especially larvae, so a first step would be to consider treating the ammonia discharges at source if possible. This would be the best solution for the environment as a whole and would probably make the source water cleaner in other ways too.
If treatment at source is not feasible, you can use aerated sand filters to remove both ammonia and solids simultaneously. They are similar to conventional sand filters but operated in a way which allows a thin nitrifying biofilm to develop.
Published by Jeremy Biddle, Engineering Director at Bluewater Bio
Ahmed, Ammonia is highly toxic to aquatic life, particularly larvae, so the best solution for the environment as a whole would be to tackle the pollution at source if possible. Find the ammonia discharges into the river and sort them out first.
If this is not feasible, you can use aerated sand filters to remove both solids and ammonia simultaneously. It is like a conventional sand filter but operated in a way to deliberately allow a thin biofilm of nitrifiers to develop.
Published by Jeremy Biddle, Engineering Director at Bluewater Bio
Hi Ahmed,
Please give us an idea of the "high" ammonia level. Do you have a reservoir prior to your plant and what is the retention? I would like to propose a very effective solution we provide for the reduction of ammonia, nitrite etc in form of a organic certified, plant extract. dave@makroorganics.com
Published by Dave Gaybba, Managing Director
Ahmed, what do you mean by "high", in terms of mg/L ammonia?
I have seen sand filters used for ammonia removal from groundwater but these have a large footprint. I have developed a high-rate process, based on expanded bed biofilm reactor (EBBR) technology. Although developed for tertiary treatment of wastewater, the same process could be used for ammonia removal from raw water (surface or ground water). The key to the process is to supply sufficient dissolved oxygen to fully oxidise the ammonia to nitrate, and sufficient dissolved bicarbonate for the nitrifying bacteria to fix enough carbon for growth.
During tertiary treatment of activated sludge settled effluent, the EBBR process was able to reduce the average ammonia concentration to 0.4 mg/L (as NH3-N), from an average inlet concentration of 21 mg/L. At times, it reduced it to 0.1 mg/L. The process also removed >50% of the residual organic matter (BOD), most likely through the activity of heterotrophic bacteria; >60% TSS and >85% bacteria, most likely through the activities of protozoa and rotifers; and 40-60% of the synthetic oestrogen, ethinyl oestradiol (EE2), most likely through hydroxylation by ammonia mono-oxygenase.
The process is not yet commercially available but we have developed it to Technology Readiness Level 7 (prototype package plant). Nevertheless, if you would like further information, please contact me at m.dempsey@mmu.ac.uk.
Published by Mike Dempsey, Managing Director, Advanced Bioprocess Development Ltd.