3rd UF Water Institute Symposium Abstract

Submitter's Name	Veronica Aponte
Session Name	Posters - Innovative Biological, Physical, and Chemical Nutrient Reduction & Recovery Technologies
Category	Innovative biological, physical, and chemical nutrient reduction & recovery technologies
Poster Number	22
Author(s)	Veronica  Aponte ,  University of South Florida  (Presenting Author)
	Alex Lin,  University of South Florida
	Kristen  Andre, University of South Florida
	Maureen Kinyua, University of South Florida
	Sarina  Ergas , University of South Florida
	A Novel Physical-Chemical-Biological Treatment Process for Swine Wastes
	Increasing meat demand is a worldwide environmental problem because agriculturally applied animal manure no longer sufficiently treats animal wastes. Swine production represents ~40% of the world’s meat production, and its wastes contain high concentrations of organic matter, nutrients (particularly N and P), pathogens, trace metals, and salts. Worldwide, anaerobic lagoons are the most common method for treatment of swine wastes; problems associated with this technology include greenhouse gas emissions, odors, pathogens, and high effluent nitrogen and phosphorous concentrations. The overall goal of this research is to develop an integrated novel, effective, robust, and economical process for treatment of swine waste, aimed at reducing both nutrient (N, P) and organic matter concentrations. The proposed process (consisting of four modules) addresses the weakest part of existing treatment methods for swine wastes, ammonia removal. In the process, anaerobic digestion will first be used to reduce organic carbon, solids, pathogen concentrations, and to generate methane as a fuel source. Phosphorus removal will be accomplished via precipitation of struvite (MgNH4PO4•6H2O), yielding a valuable fertilizer. Ammonia is subsequently removed by nitrification/denitrification in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) converting ammonia to benign N2(g). Ion-exchange (IX) will be implemented to separate ammonia from the wastewater, allowing less COD introduction to the nitrification stage. In our current research, the following bench scale experiments are being carrying out to optimize each module: (1) semi-continuous anaerobic digestion studies at varying solids retention times (SRT) and organic loading rates (OLR), (2) struvite precipitation experiments with varying magnesium and calcium concentrations and using aeration and chemical buffers for pH control, (3) IX adsorption isotherms experiments with different resins, and (4) adaption of a single sludge nitrification/denitrification culture to high salt and ammonia concentrations in a hybrid attached-suspended growth SBR. The results of these experiments will be presented at the conference.