A Novel Strategy for Carbon Redirection at Biological Nutrient Removal Facilities

The wastewater industry is striving to reduce operation costs while producing effluent with low nutrient concentrations. This paper presents the “A2B” Process, a novel strategy for carbon redirection that can have advantages over the traditional adsorption/bio-oxidation (A-B) process, as it is easier to implement and operate in a range of conventional Biological Nutrient Removal (BNR) facilities set up to remove nitrogen and phosphorus biologically. Benefits include increased energy production if resulting solids are anaerobically digested; reduced energy for operation compared to conventional aeration; and increased treatment capacity in the aeration basins due to reduced carbon loads.