ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Dec. 29, 2015 — The Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) is seeking proposals for two studies into the impact of resource recovery on wastewater treatment processes, according to a press release.
The organization said in the release that it will fund research examining whether water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs) that operate for enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR), and/or phosphorus recovery, experience difficulties in dewatering anaerobically digested biosolids.
WERF also will fund a study to examine how phosphorus accumulation and recovery are impacted when combined with a low-energy, low-carbon process (such as mainstream deammonification), noted the release.
The first project, titled “Unintended Consequences of Resource Recovery on Overall Plant Performance: Solving the Impacts on Dewaterability Properties,” is intended to address recent reports of dewatering difficulties, stated the release. WERF wants to find out if this phenomenon is widespread, and to better understand dewaterability performance and its impact on overall resource recovery operations.
The second project, “Understanding the Impacts of Low-Energy and Low-Carbon Nitrogen Removal Technologies on Bio-P and Nutrient Recovery Processes,” aims to determine the design and operational impacts of incorporating EBPR, or other phosphorus recovery techniques, into a low-energy, low-carbon nitrogen removal process at a WRRF, reported the release. The focus of this research should be on processes that are at or near the full-scale demonstration or implementation phase, and would be applicable to the existing infrastructure present at the majority of municipal WRRFs.
WERF has allocated almost $300,000 for these two projects, shared the release. Proposals must be submitted by early March and late February, 2016, respectively.
You can find the entire release here.
