Resources in Wastewater New Wastewater Treatment Process Enables Ammonium Recovery

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A new microaerobic activated sludge process shifts wastewater treatment from nitrogen removal towards resource recovery. The approach enables ammonium to be recovered from fermentation-industry wastewater and could reduce the energy required for aeration.

Researchers at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), working with Kirin Holdings, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and Kyoto University, have developed a technology that shifts microbial communities in fermentation-industry wastewater treatment plants from nitrogen removal to nitrogen recovery.

Nitrogen compounds are essential for agriculture and are also used as raw materials in pharmaceutical and chemical production. However, excessive releases into the environment can contribute to the eutrophication of lakes and coastal waters, acid rain and global warming through nitrous oxide emissions. According to the Planetary Boundaries framework, human disruption of the nitrogen cycle has already exceeded the Earth’s safe operating limits.

Organic wastewater from the food and pharmaceutical fermentation industries typically contains low concentrations of nitrogen compounds. In conventional activated sludge treatment, these compounds are first converted into ammonium ions. Through nitrification and denitrification, the ammonium is subsequently transformed into nitrite, nitrate, nitric oxide and nitrous oxide before ultimately being released into the atmosphere as nitrogen gas.

This treatment requires substantial aeration to supply oxygen, resulting in high energy consumption. Halting the microbial conversion process at the ammonium stage and recovering the ammonium could reduce energy use while providing a potentially valuable resource. This requires precise control of the nitrogen-converting microbial communities in activated sludge, but the necessary operating conditions and the communities’ responses have not yet been sufficiently understood.

Using scaled-down systems based on industrial fermentation wastewater treatment plants and simulated wastewater derived from actual production streams, the researchers demonstrated that microbial communities could be shifted from nitrogen removal towards nitrogen recovery. Low dissolved oxygen and low pH conditions enabled the communities to convert nitrogen compounds into ammonium while suppressing subsequent biological conversion reactions.

The resulting microaerobic activated sludge process enables ammonium generated from wastewater to be recovered through downstream separation and concentration technologies and potentially used as an energy resource. The approach could support a transition from nitrogen removal to resource recovery without requiring major modifications to existing wastewater treatment plants.

Original Article: Acclimation of microbial communities in low dissolved oxygen and low pH driven start-up of microaerobic activated sludge process to recover ammonium from fermentation industrial wastewater; Water Research; DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2026.126305

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