Shiva, why do you need to remove the ammonia? Is the water for drinking, an industrial process, or is it wastewater? Marco, why do you say that air-stripping and ion exchange are "more friendly than using bacteria"? 1. Nitrifying bacteria are autortophic, that is they cannot use external organic carbon and are, therefore, safe to use (non-pathogenic). They oxidise the ammonia to nitrate, via nitrite. The WHO guideling value for nitrate (as NO3-) is 50 mg/L (50 ppm), so 30 ppm ammonia (as NH3?) will produce 109 ppm nitrate (as NO3-). So,if required for drinking, some denitrification will be required. 2. Air-stripping surely required pH adjustment into the alkaline region, to convert ammonium to ammonia gas for stripping, and adjusting back to neutral for consumption. Also, transporting ammonia into the atmosphere is not a good idea, from a pollution point of view. 3. Ion exchange creates a waste stream that has to be disposed of, surely that is expensive?

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Shiva, why do you need to remove the ammonia? Is the water for drinking, an industrial process, or is it wastewater?

Marco, why do you say that air-stripping and ion exchange are "more friendly than using bacteria"?

1. Nitrifying bacteria are autortophic, that is they cannot use external organic carbon and are, therefore, safe to use (non-pathogenic). They oxidise the ammonia to nitrate, via nitrite. The WHO guideling value for nitrate (as NO3-) is 50 mg/L (50 ppm), so 30 ppm ammonia (as NH3?) will produce 109 ppm nitrate (as NO3-). So,if required for drinking, some denitrification will be required.

2. Air-stripping surely required pH adjustment into the alkaline region, to convert ammonium to ammonia gas for stripping, and adjusting back to neutral for consumption. Also, transporting ammonia into the atmosphere is not a good idea, from a pollution point of view.

3. Ion exchange creates a waste stream that has to be disposed of, surely that is expensive?