Advertisement for MSc thesis: To source separate or to annamox? Can we mainstream two disruptive innovations in wastewater treatment in parallel?

Proposed Title: To source separate or to annamox? Can we mainstream two disruptive innovations in wastewater treatment in parallel?

Credits: 30 credits; Level: Advanced
Subject: Technology, Environmental Science or Sustainable Development
Start: January 2022 or later

Two of the most exciting and potentially disruptive innovations that are being tested in the field of wastewater treatment are:

• Source Separation, where different fractions of household wastewater (urine, faeces/brownwater, greywater) are separately collected at source and treated differently to recover and recycle resources (fertilizers like urea and struvite, water, energy, …)
• Annamox, oranaerobic ammonium oxidation, a naturally occurring microbial process which can be applied to remove nitrogen at centralised wastewater treatment plants by directly converting ammonia and nitrite to nitrogen gas.

Source-separation calls for distributed/decentralized treatment of wastewater and emphasizes the recovery of nutrients and resources. Annamox on the other hand calls for an upgrade on the existing biological nitrogen removal processes at centralized wastewater treatment plants. Both these innovations are currently being mainstreamed but little is known about –

1. Whether these processes can complement each other, and if so, when? at what scale?
2. In which context and settings are each of these innovations better suited?
3. The overall energy requirements for treating wastewater through both processes, especially from a life-cycle perspective. e.g., annamox reduces the energy demand for aeration and nitrogen removal but source separation and nutrient recycling reduces the need to manufacture synthetic ammonia-based fertilizers (Haber Bosch nitrogen)

We hope to answer some of these questions through a Master’s thesis project, which will be part of ongoing research projects funded by the Swedish Research Councils Vetenskapsrådet and Formas. The project will likely involve collaboration with research groups from Lund University, Lulea University and ETH Zurich. Results from the thesis are expected to be highly relevant for municipal decision-making, e.g., when growing cities must decide whether to upgrade existing treatment plants or have newly built neighborhoods take care of their own wastewater by source separation and recycling.

Who are we? The Kretsloppsteknik Group at SLU offers a dynamic, fun, and diverse working environment. We’re usually between 15 and 20 coming from >10 countries, with expertise ranging from socio-technical systems analysis to wastewater chemistry and microbiology. We mainly work with five major research themes and our work has a very strong international presence through various long-term collaborations.

Interested? Get in touch with us:

Dr. Prithvi Simha (Prithvi.Simha@slu.se) and Assoc. Prof. Jennifer McConville (jennifer.mcconville@slu.se)