SBIR Phase I: Novel Process Technology for Point-of-Generation Nitrogen Removal from Wastewater

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is to address the grand challenge of human-induced nitrogen loading to the environment. An easy-to-use and affordable system will target a major source of nitrogen releases to watersheds: the on-site systems that treat wastewater from millions of households and commercial facilities across the U.S. The need to mitigate harmful algal blooms and prevent other damaging cumulative effects to aquatic ecosystems have created an urgent demand for onsite technologies that remove nitrogen at its source. The proposed nitrogen removal technology is modular and adaptable for use in small-scale systems that treat wastewater from individual homes, community systems and commercial establishments. The project employs an innovative biological nitrogen removal process that that will be verified and optimized for high priority applications in rural, peri-urban, and urban settings. The system is mechanically simple, generates no waste products, and operates passively with minimal maintenance, energy or consumables. The results from this project will help to solve the critical challenge of nitrogen control by providing a highly efficient, low-cost, commercializable system that is practicable for on-site wastewater treatment in new and retrofit systems. The technical objectives of this Phase I research project are to design, construct, field-test, and critically evaluate variant prototypes of an innovative bioreactor system to remove nitrogen from onsite wastewater. Prototype bioreactors will be operated and monitored over multiple months to investigate their salient operational characteristics and define effective design and treatment regimes. The bioreactors will be installed to treat real household wastewater under field conditions. Nitrogen analytes will be monitored across the bioreactor systems to delineate the effects of biotreatment on four nitrogen species: organic nitrogen, ammonium, nitrate and nitrite. The effects of the biotreatment system on chemical and biochemical oxygen demand, inorganic chemical parameters, and other wastewater constituents of interest will also be elucidated. The project will critically evaluate the effectiveness of total nitrogen removal and the stability and resiliency of individual nitrogen removal transformations. The work will confirm the longevity and robustness of the nitrogen removal process and identify design and operating parameters that optimize an innovative approach to remove total nitrogen from on-site wastewater while mitigating nitrogen releases to the environment. Prototype design and monitoring will facilitate scale-up of results to full-scale biotreatment systems.