Mainstream ANITA Mox Pilot Testing at Los Angeles County Joint Water Pollution Control Plant Meg Hollowed Veolia Water Technologies

Presentation Outline Background LACSD Pilot Testing Activities Summary Sidestream vs. Mainstream Deammonification Agency and Facilities ANITA Mox Process LACSD Pilot Testing Activities Sidestream Testing at the JWPCP Mainstream Testing at the JWPCP Summary Not going to discuss sidestream testing today but LA county has done several pilots.

Conventional Treatment Plants Mainstream Mainstream is top line of unit processes. Sidestream refers to ancillary unit processes. Sidestream

Deammonification Similar to terms like nitrification or denitrification Nitrification Conversion of ammonia to nitrite or nitrate Bacteria called Ammonia or Nitrite Oxidizing Bacteria Denitrification Conversion of nitrate to nitrogen gas Heterotrophic denitrifying bacteria Deammonification Conversion of ammonia to nitrogen gas Bacteria required include Ammonia Oxidizing Bacteria and Anaerobic Ammonia Oxidizing Bacteria (Anammox)

LACSD Wastewater Treatment Facilities 11 facilities; 10 with effluent nitrogen limits; 4 with solids processing

Joint Water Pollution Control Plant Rated capacity: 400 MGD Ocean-discharge; no effluent nitrogen limits cBOD removal only (HPOAS) N

Interest in Nitrogen Removal May need to meet more stringent effluent nitrogen levels Regulatory drivers Water reuse On-going program to evaluate nitrogen removal technologies

Districts’ Anammox Research Sidestream Anammox Enrichment (2003, 2010-2011) Pilot-Scale DEMON, Whittier Narrows WRP (2012- 2013) Pilot-Scale ANITA Mox, JWPCP (2013-2014) Pilot-Scale ANITA Mox, Valencia WRP (2014) Mainstream Pilot-Scale ANITA Mox, JWPCP (2017-2018)

Mainstream Testing: Research Questions Does this process work for JWPCP? How well does this process work? Effect of Feed C/N (bsCOD/NH4-N) How “finicky” is this process to operate? Is NOB competition an issue? Process robustness Study still in progress Results presented are preliminary

Veolia’s ANITA Mox Process Biofilm-based system Retains slow-growing organisms (i.e., AnAOBs) Greater protection from shocks/toxicity Environment for both aerobic/anaerobic organisms High surface area/volume

Conventional Treatment Plants Existing mainstream process for carbon removal (i.e. High rate A/S)

Process Flow Diagram System retrofitted from 2013-2014 IFAS Pilot Add general pfd Explain the purpose for the primary effluent Builds biomass to improve settling / capacity Helps reduce effluent NOx System retrofitted from 2013-2014 IFAS Pilot

IFAS Pilot Layout Reactor Clarifier 40’ Cargo Container Photo of container 40’ Cargo Container

Feed Characteristics Parameters Unit Primary Effluent* Secondary Effluent Nitrogen TKN mg N/L 56 45 NH4 46 44 Organic matter   COD mg/L 395 49 sCOD 181 37 BOD 215 3 TSS 152 12 Alkalinity mg CaCO3/L 383 370 July 2016 Data, Medians *Fresh

Mainstream ANITA Mox Operational Parameters for NOB Control Aeration DO Setpoint Intermittent Aeration SRT Sludge Wasting Rate Note JWPCP centrate’s dilute nature

Test Phases Conducted To-Date Date Range Target Feed C/N Type of Carbon Supplement Status Startup 5/26/17 – 7/11/17 Beverage Manufacturing Waste Completed 1 7/12/17 – 9/11/17 ~ 0.5 Primary Effluent (Stored) 2 9/12/17 – 11/21/17 ~ 1.0 3 11/22/17 – 12/15/17 ~ 0.75 4 12/21/17 – now ~ 2.0 Primary Effluent (Fresh) In Progress

Ammonia Removal Performance Vs. NH4 surface rate of 1.2 g/m2-d @ 23 C (Paris results) Increase Feed C/N

Nitrogen Removal Performance Increase Feed C/N

Effect of Feed C/N Increasing the Feed C/N (Phase 1  2) Date Range Feed C/N Effluent TIN (mgN/L) TN Removal Efficiency TN SARR (g/m2-d) 1 8/18/17~ 9/11/17 0.58 16.0 63% 1.1 2 10/9/17~ 10/25/17 1.0 9.7 77% 0.86 Increasing the Feed C/N (Phase 1  2) Reduced effluent TIN by ~6 mgN/L But also reduced the surface removal rate by ~20%

Sludge Settling Issues Observed some sludge settling issues, as indicated by sludge SVI and effluent TSS. Installation of an anaerobic selector appeared to have some effect. Changing primary effluent feed from “stored” to “fresh” also appeared to have some effect.

Stability of Anammox Activity Batch Activity test No loss of activity after 8 months No need for augmentation

Operation with Selector and Fresh PE Substantial P removal P release pattern consistent with EBPR

Summary: Mainstream ANITA Mox Testing Process enables nitrogen removal from low C/N wastewater without carbon addition Performance Higher feed C/N appears to improve TIN removal efficiency, at the expense of removal rate. Sludge settling can be an issue, which seems to be somewhat alleviated by: Operating with an anaerobic selector Eliminating primary effluent storage Robustness Appears stable under mainstream conditions Add next step

Acknowledgements Project Team Erik Krikorian Tom Knapp Ken Smith Jim Barry Michael Liu Nikos Melitas JWPCP Operations Dave Frediani Sejal Patel JWPCP Laboratory Joe Khoury Julie Sebata Hong Zhao Mitch Johnson Samuel Liang Rich Dimassimo