SHARON-ANAMMOX process for treatment of ammonium rich wastewater and aerobic granular sludge technology for treatment of wastewater and groundwater contaminated by chlorinated organic pollutants - A state-of-the-art on recent and past research activities carried out at DICAAR

Since high nitrogen (N) levels in water contribute to the degradation of freshwater, estuarine and coastal marine ecosystems, its effective removal from N-rich wastewater discharges represents an environmental priority. Alternative biological treatments based on completely autotrophic ammonium removal via nitrite, such as the SHARON-ANAMMOX or CANON processes, are worthy of being investigated: within this framework, the research activity carried out at DICAAR (Department of Civil-Environmental Engineering and Architecture) has been focusing on the application of the SHARON-ANAMMOX process to the treatment of ammonium rich refinery wastewater (sour water) containing toxic substances. Another research topic at DICAAR is the application of the Aerobic Granular Sludge technology to the treatment of wastewater and groundwater contaminated by chlorinated organic pollutants (e.g. chlorophenols): in fact, an ever growing amount of halogenated organic compounds is yearly produced both for commercial purposes or as intermediate products in chemical processes, and their extreme toxicity even at relatively low concentrations coupled with their strong tendency to bioaccumulate require the development of alternative, cost- and technical-effective biotechnologies able to convert them into harmless substances. In this paper, a state of the art on the SHARON-ANAMMOX and CANON processes, as well as on the Aerobic Granular Sludge technology is provided, together with a close-up on some of the scientific results achieved at DICAAR