Electrochemical Deammonification of Synthetic Swine Wastewater

The ammonia electrolysis process, which presents as only products nitrogen and hydrogen fuel, was evaluated for the deammonification of wastewater. The effects of cell voltage, pH, and flow rate were analyzed for single pass ammonia electro-oxidation of synthetic swine wastewater. A surface response analysis was performed to obtain quadratic models that predict the NH3 conversion and hydrogen (H2) production where pH was identified as the variable with the most statistic significance to explain changes in ammonia conversion with hydrogen production. NH3 conversions above 80% and specific energy consumption under 3 kW·h kg–1 of NH3, without considering the energy that can be obtained from the H2 produced, show that the ammonia electrolysis technology has promising potential for the deammonification of wastewater with less energy consumption than the conventional nitrification/denitrification process.