Recipient Organization
STATE UNIV OF NEW YORK
(N/A)
SYRACUSE,NY 13210
Performing Department
Environmental Resources Engineering
Non Technical Summary
Ammonia-rich wastewater, such as digester effluent, landfill leachate, livestock wastewater, and source-separated urine, is generated at various municipal, industrial, and agricultural sites, such as wastewater treatment plants, concentrated animal feeding operations, landfills, food processing plants, bioprocessing operations, and composting sites. Since wastewater treatment and reclamation regulations on nitrogen are getting more stringent, there is an increasing need to remove ammonia cost-effectively. Such ammonia-rich wastewater is often connected with anaerobic digesters that are used to produce clean energy in the form of biogas (typically 65% in methane) while treating organic wastes or by-products, such as sewage sludge, food waste, and animal manure. The anaerobic digesters rarely yield methane at the biomethane potential of an organic feedstock, largely because ammonia can build up over a few months to a level high enough to inhibit methane-producing microorganisms. Therefore, ammonia must be removed from the digestate in order to achieve stable, high-rate anaerobic digestion. Even for beneficial reuse of digester effluent, ammonia needs to be removed to avoid cytotoxicity. Conventional methods of ammonia removal can be costly and energy-intensive. Rather, ammonia in ammonia-rich wastewater can be recovered as sellable salts, thus offsetting the high cost of ammonia removal or even making a profit. Nevertheless, there has been little industry adoption of ammonia recovery technologies due to technical challenges and cost concerns. The recently invented vacuum stripping and absorption (VaSA) technology has been reviewed to be the most practical and among the most efficient methods for ammonia recovery. Case studies have proved VaSA to be a highly efficient and profitable ammonia recovery technology. VaSA couples vacuum thermal stripping and acid absorption to pull ammonia out of ammonia-rich wastewater to form ammonium sulfate granules, a sellable nitrogen fertilizer and reagent-grade chemical. This I-Corps project will assess the market fit and business models for potential adoption of the VaSA technology by ammonia-rich wastewater generators and anaerobic digestion facilities.Awarded Start Date: 6/1/2020Sponsor: National Science Foundation
Animal Health Component
100%
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
100%
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
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Project Methods
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