Advancing Partial Denitrification/Anammox (PdNA) Full-scale Applications

Water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) face increasingly stringent nutrient limits. Traditionally, WRRFs have employed energy-intensive biological methods for nitrogen removal and combined biological and chemical techniques for phosphorus removal, and often require costly external carbon sources and significant operational expenses. Partial denitrification/ anammox (PdNA) has the potential to help WRRFs meet nutrient limits while also improving efficiency and reducing energy consumption, carbon emissions, sludge production, and overall costs. However, the industry lacks a holistic research framework and guidance for facilities to evaluate and implement PdNA.

This project aims to advance full-scale implementation of mainstream anammox using the PdNA strategy by identifying best practices for incorporation into a broad spectrum of biological nitrogen and phosphorus removal configurations. There are two overarching objectives: (1) Conduct remaining research to finalize and develop design and operational guidance to support full-scale PdNA application, and (2) Advance the integration of PdNA with enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) to promote potential anoxic phosphorus uptake, as well as potentially achieve stored carbon in other PdNA configurations.