Treatment of High Ammonium-Nitrogen Wastewater from Composting Facilities by Air Stripping and Catalytic Oxidation

Composting municipal wastewater sludge may generate composting wastewater (acid washer water and tunnel wastewater) with high ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N) concentration; this kind of wastewater is usually generated in a rather small daily amount. A procedure of air stripping with catalytic oxidation was developed and tested with pilot-scale and full-scale units for synthetic disposal of the high NH4-N wastewaters from composting facilities. In air stripping, around 90% NH4-N removal efficiency was reliably achieved with a maximum of 98%. A model to describe the stripping process efficiency was constructed, which can be used for process optimization. After catalytic oxidation, the concentrations in the outlet gas were acceptable for NH3, NOX, NO2, and N2O, but the NH3 and N2O concentrations limited the feasible loading range. The treatment costs were estimated in detail. The results indicate that air stripping with the catalytic oxidation process can be applied for wastewater treatment in composting facilities.