Ammonia Removal from River Water

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We have a river water plant which treats the river water to drinking water, using the ultrafiltration (UF) system.

The intake water has high ammonia content.

What is the best way to remove the ammonia or reduce it to drinking water levels?

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44 Answers

  1. If you are talking about NH4 then simple filtration through Australian zeolite before any aeration will reduce NH4 significantly

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    Peter
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  2. Hi Ahmed,

    I guess you have quite a high concentration of ammonia, low retention and have tried aeration already? Please give me an idea of the ammonia level. Do you have a retention pond/reservoir at the inflow and what is the retention time? I might just have a solution for you in a plant extract product form. 

    Regards

    Dave 

  3. biological preocess whis turn amonia to nitrite (aerobic) andfrom nitrite to nitrate (anaerobic) the nirate will be used by microbs and will be released to the atmosphare in the form of N2

  4. Aeration is a common way to remove ammonia from water (https://www.gewater.com/handbook/ext_treatment/ch_4_aeration.jsp)

    This is a good article in relation to the nitrification process and how aeration facilitates ammonia removal. 

    http://www.drydeninformationcentre.com/aeration-of-lagoons-for-landfill-leachate-treatment-manual

    The most efficient way to do this is through fine and ultrafine bubble generation. Ultrafine bubbles remain suspended in the water for up to several days, thus significantly reducing the amount of energy required to operate. 

    I am experienced in fine and ultrafine bubble generation technologies and their applications for ammonia removal in wastewater treatment in Asia and Australia. If you would like to know more, email me at andrew@waterandoilsolutions.com.au

  5. Yes The ammonia issue should be considered from the river perspective

    however oxidation could be an answer here either as suggested by ozonation or by direct electrolysis. As to regard of chlorination beware of chloramine formation. and with the level of oxidant be cautious with the impact on membrane

    what flow are you looking at?

    2 Comments

  6. Yes The ammonia issue should be considered from the river perspective

    however oxidation could be an answer here either as suggested by ozonation or by direct electrolysis. As to regard of chlorination beware of chloramine formation. and with the level of oxidant be cautious with the impact on membrane

    what flow are you looking at?

  7. There are several common methods. You can consider aeration, attached growth biological method, or using immobilised biological treatment, even a prior artificial wet land. Zeolite filter is another way to remove ammonia. 

  8. If you change the pH you will make a majority of the dissolved ammonia free ammonia and available for removal by aeration.  This is the least expensive and easiest way to do it.

     

    1 Comment

    1. Adjusting pH + aeration is not as easy as said. Normally you need to adjust pH to 10-11 to blow off the ammonia, then you need to adjust it back. It works well at high concentration, but when the concentration is low, removal by aeration is challenging.

      I think operation wise the easier way is to use biomass carrier based biological method or zeolite filters.

      1 Comment reply

  11. Ultrafiltration (UF) retains only solids. All soluble pollutants including organics, ammonia and other minerals will just pass through the UF membrane.

    If the river water has high ammonia levels then it is strongly polluted (0.5 ppm free dissolved ammonia NH3 kill fish) and also the level of dissolved organics and other oxidizable compounds is likely to be (very) high as well (please verify COD and TOC). In such case, advanced oxidation (ozone, ...) would be very inefficient and expensive in operating costs. Hence (advanced) biological treatment with biological nitrogen removal - upstream of UF - would be far more efficient and sustainable.

    2 Comments

  12. I would suggest our nano bubble ozonisation system prior your filtration.. Test reports show amonia reduced to zero within 5 minutes of application...Even heavy metals are oxidised to higher state so become easily filterable... And also enhances membrane life and maintainence...

    1 Comment

  13. Ammonia is difficult to remove from water. It can be removed by cation exchange resin in the hydrogen form, which requires use of acid as a regenerant. Degasification can also be effective.The ammonium ion is not harmful to health, but its presence, especially in surface water, can be considered as an indicator of pollution. However, it is an annoying element because it interferes with chlorinationTo form chloramines that alter the odor and taste of water (chlorine taste), and is also a food for some bacteria which can thus proliferate in the distribution networks. It should therefore be removed from the water intended for human consumption.

    Ammonium Removal Techniques:

    1.Chemical oxidation: an efficient process to use under very precise conditions.The oxidant used is chlorine which is injected at a concentration beyond the critical point(Break-point) so that it has reacted with all the nitrogen compounds present in the water

    2.Ionic exchange: a simple process that raises the problem of its own releases. It is possible to use natural resins, zeolites (chabazite, modernite, clinoptilolite), or synthetic resins, these. The latter being preferred for reasons of longevity and ease of implementation. These, of cationic type, fix calcium and magnesium ions, and, to a lesser extent, ammonium ions. Their use is therefore justified onlyIn the context of a softening treatment. They then allow the removal of ammonia and possibly even some cationic micropollutants (arsenic, gallium ...). This process is based on the exchange of ammonium ions contained in the water with sodium ions contained in the resin.

    3. Stripping: a process unsuited to drinking water.Ammonia is a weak base which hydrolyzes in water to form ammonium and hydroxide ions.

    4.La filtration biologique : un procédé performant mais nécessitant certaines contraintes d’exploitation L’élimination biologique de l’ammonium (nitrification) s’effectue en deux étapes, mettant en œuvre deux types de bactéries aérobies et autotrophes (c'est-à-dire consommatrices de carbone minéral), qui transforment l’ion ammonium en nitrites.

    However,the problem has not been fully resolved.The advantages and disadvantages of each allowing to choose the most appropriate according to specific constraints.However, if the effectiveness of the treatments makes it possible to get rid of the problems due to ammonium,efforts are needed to reduce pollution at source.

    Best regards,

     

    Daniela Anghel

    1 Comment

  14. areate your water by MLSS if will remove ammonia.

    for Example

    make a tank X2 bigger then feed inlet (100 liter per day means make areation tank 250 and 300 liter)

    manitaine F/M food to mass ratio, you will see the good results.

     

     

    Regards

    Abdul Gaffar

  15. Dear All

     

    Many thanks for all of your input into this question I highly appreciate it.

     

    My main concern here is that I have

    Ammonia around 1.4 ppm

    COD      14 mg O2/l.

    BOD        5-6 mg O2/l.

    Total Alk.   150-170 ppm.

     

    Do you think that using Bromicide will work.

    Do you feel that Ion Exchange resin ( Cationinc) or Zeolite will not be colloged by the high BOD and COD. Is it going to be selectively removing the Alkalinity instead of Ammonia at these concentrations.

     

     

  16. There are some good papers to be found here on the subject using oxidation chemicals including ozone:  http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ie9702082

  17. its best to use something that was designed to treating rivers and getting rid of ammonia in situ.  Biocleaner river units are ideal and cost of treatment is low and convenient.  Guy is correct.  you need archae and bacteria to treat down bacteria and make it perfectly heathy to drink.

    1 Comment

  18.       This section provides details on the latest developments and efforts in the removal of ammonia from wastewater.

    We have discussed the following:

    • Current Wastewater Treatment Process – Ammonia Removal
    • New Technologies in the Removal of Ammonia from Waste Water
      • Successful Ammonia Removal from Wastewater Using Liqui-Cel® Membrane
      • Ammonium Removal from Concentrated Waste Streams with the Anaerobic Ammonium Oxidation (Anammox) Process in Different Reactor Configurations
      • How CASTion Helps Remove Ammonia 
      • Ammonia removal in Wastewater Treatment Applications with BIOBUG® NB from BIO-SYSTEMS International
      • Ringlace Fixed-Film Media
      • CARBTROL

  19. Ammonia is widely used in the Chemical Industry as a cleaning and bleaching agent in the production of fertilizers, plastics, and explosives just to name a few. As a result, large quantities of wastewater containing ammonia are produced and many industries now have to treat the wastewater to remove the ammonia so that it is not discharged back into the environment. The following are the various methods followed for the removal of ammonia.

  20. There is no wastewater system in our city (southeast asia) so our raw water is effectively untreated wastewater with ammonia often at 7 or 8mg/L, sometimes up to 10mg/L. We have installed MBBRs (moving bed biological reactors) as the first stage of our WTPs and get very good ammonia removal (up to 85%). The MBBRs are also relatively cheap and easy to install and operate. In addition, as we run conventional WTPs up to 350ML/d, we have stopped pre-chlorination and get additional biological treatment in the filter beds... though obviously need 100% assurance on your post-chlorination.

  21. If you want to solve the problem in the stream itsel, stratigaly placing large rocks to creat turbalances and lowering the depth of the water in some places may be the best option, and let nature do the rest. but this also depends on to stream flow and the concentration of the amonia.

  22. Chlorination works but chloramines need to be removed. Oxidation-reduction reaction causes ammonia removal problem.

    If present ionically,cation resins work well if low in hardness for water.

    Natural zeolites with salt regeneration works well.

    Aeration being the key for oxidation removal of Ammonia,I suggest ozone microbubbles for drink water.

    WQA TECHNICAL APPLICATIONS BULLETIN 

    is a useful ref..also Water Technology magazine website

  23. Ammonia can be present in water in two forms, either ammonium hydroxide (NH3) or as the ammonium ion (NH4).

    When the pH of the water is less than 7 the ammonia is present as the ammonium ion. As pH increases above 7, more of the ammonia is present as ammonium hydroxide.

    The ammonium ion is readily removed by cation resin. Good removal capacity can be expected in waters low in hardness. Waters that are high in hardness will have decreased capacity due to the simultaneous affinity and removal of calcium, magnesium and the ammonium ion.

  24. You are right on target. Bhaskar Maillmadugula. Environmental multitasking. May I suggest these points. poor water, sick plants and fish, locked up nutrients, decrease of O2, anaerobic conditions. Multitasking solution = adding RNA  microbial group called Archaea to the river (managers decide where to begin), The Archaea will breakdown all organic compounds into their elemental/nutritional state, chelate any and all toxic metals, increase O2 content, fish and plants become healthy and multiply, Ammonia in water is consumed, no need for river water to be treated. Eliminates the need for any chlorination. Pathogen testing daily will remain at ZERO.  People drinking this super oxygenated water will be much healthier.   ( thanks for the diatoms tip, microbiology professor said he ate mud pies as a child just to get his daily supply of diatoms).  Take care! 

    2 Comments

    1. Thanks. We grow Diatoms by dosing micro-nutrients, not by adding Diatoms to the water. All natural waterways would have Diatoms, when micro-nutrients are added, these diatoms grow rapidly.   The downside of drinking filtered water is that Diatoms too are filtered out, along with bacteria. 

  26. The chlorine may be a good disinfectant for removing the ammonia in river water. The chlorine may be added by supplying bleaching powder at the intake point of the river water.

  27. the best way maybe to treat the water with sulphuric acid to form ammonium sulphate & use it for irrigation, the ammonium sulphate in the water will be a fertilizer after experimenting if it is useful to grow crops for 6 months.   

    1 Comment

  28. You did not note the starting ammonia concentration.  Assumming it is low parts per million concentration, then, in addition to the many great suggestions below, breakpoint chlorination.  That will have the additional benefit of disinfection of the drinking water source.

  29. Raise the ph to 8, aerate and nh4 will voilitilize 

    cheap and simple

     

    Answered on by

  30. Raise the ph to 8, aerate and nh4 will voilitilize 

    cheap and simple

     

    Answered on by

  31. There are  following method to remove ammonia

    1.Air stripping at elevateted pH(9.5-10.5)

    2. Biological Treatment

    3. Adsorption by Zeolite(Ion Exchange)

    4. Use chemical like H2SO4 and then neutralise.

    5. Distillation with steam

    The general approach to ammonia removal would be primary and polishing softeners. Ammonia is removed preferentially to sodium by cation resin, but is displaced by calcium and magnesium. Therefore, a single softener will remove ammonia during the initial part of its cycle but will then release the ammonia as it becomes exhausted with hardness.

    Softening can be used effectively for ammonia removal if the primary softener is allowed to load to a hardness endpoint and a polishing softener is used to remove ammonia. In this case, the primary softener must not be operated to hardness breakthrough, as this would cause an ammonia spike and lead to elevated ammonia levels in the final product water.

    1 Comment

  33. High ammonia levels signify anoxic/anaerobic conditions. 
    If you want to eliminate the source, check of the river contains nitrificating organisms and look at ways to aerate the river water. 
    Lowest cost would be the planting of aquatic plants known to oxygenate the water, though this would take some time to take effect.

    Alternatively you can have a aerated biological stage (activated sludge or MBR) prior to your UF. Fast, but higher operating costs over time.

    2 Comments

  34. Grow Diatoms. They will consume the ammonia and produce oxygen. Diatoms are the natural food for fish, so the fish in the river will increase.

    So our solution is to use the ammonia to grow fish , just as farmers use urea to grow crops. 

    2 Comments

    1. Growing diatoms ​​will only ​​oxygenate the ​​water during ​the day. At ​night, they ​will ​consume oxygen ​and could cause ​severe oxygen ​depletion, ​leading to ​further ​problems such ​as fish kill.​

    2. You are right on target. Environmental multitasking.  May I suggest these points. poor water, sick plants and fish, locked up nutrients, decrease of O2, anaerobic conditions.  Multitasking solution = adding RNA  microbial group called Archaea to the river (managers decide where to begin), The Archaea will breakdown all organic compounds into their elemental/nutritional state, chelate any and all toxic metals, increase O2 content, fish and plants become healthy and multiply,  Ammonia in water is consumed, no need for river water to be treated. Eliminates the need for any chlorination. Pathogen testing daily will remain at ZERO.  People drinking this super oxygenated water will be much healthier.   ( thanks for the diatoms tip, microbiology professor said he ate mud pies as a child just to get his daily supply of diatoms).  Take care!

  36. The best method of treatment is to eliminate the source.

    Ammonia can indicate some other even more harmful risks, and so the source should be at least investigated and eliminated if possible.

    Tom Keenan

  37. There are three ways to remove ammonia 1.) raise the pH to 10.5 and air strip it (can be expensive to adjust pH up then back down)  2.) use a zeolite like Clinoptilolite and absorb the ammonia then use the zeolite as fertilizer (this can be expensive in high flows).  3.) use biological removal using an aerated/anoxic process to convert ammonia - nitrite-nitrate. This assumes that increased nitrate levels are not a problem.

  38. Dear mr Khafagy,

    I'm sorry to repeat one of the answers below, but eliminating the source of high ammonia in the river might be the first and maybe cost-effective approach.

    However, you may have already considered this and may not be an option. (sorry another repeat)

    You could go for a classical take on the matter, using either a activated sludge system , fixed bed system or indeed go full chemical and use Ozone.

    Stripping is an option.. but it’s effectiveness is somewhat dependent on the initial concentration (what’s high in your case?)  A route you could consider is the use of  ion exchange (either thru natural zeolites or resins)    Regeneration of the zeolite will require a brine solution, and you’ll eventually end up with a highly  ammonia concentrated brine solution.  What you could consider to do with this is stripping  and scrubbing, obtaining a ammonium sulfide solution, which has value on its own.

    Somewhat more advanced ( or should I say, not a 100% technologically ready yet)   is to use the solution to obtain single cell protein.

    Good luck on finding a solution,

    Best regards

    Doy

  39. Colleagues are right:Amonia should be removed Before  reaching à river. It often results from over fertilising in Agriculture which is a major source bringing ammonia to rivers.

    in Germany an industrial technology called stripping is now applied to wastewater. The investment is not higher than other technologies and brings a plus: armonía can be recycled.

    But in order to find the optimal solution, please consider the source of contamination, the concentration on ammonia in the water, opportunities an selling cost of recycled ammonia and the flow to be treated

    with kind regards 

    thomas

  40. Hello Ahmed, Ozone is one way to reduce the ammonia and if your flow rates are high it would be best that you try it out on a pilot scale first to get the dosage right.

  41. Ahmed, Ammonia is extremely toxic to aquatic life, especially larvae, so a first step would be to consider treating the ammonia discharges at source if possible. This would be the best solution for the environment as a whole and would probably make the source water cleaner in other ways too.

    If treatment at source is not feasible, you can use aerated sand filters to remove both ammonia and solids simultaneously. They are similar to conventional sand filters but operated in a way which allows a thin nitrifying biofilm to develop.

  42. Ahmed, Ammonia is highly toxic to aquatic life, particularly larvae, so the best solution for the environment as a whole would be to tackle the pollution at source if possible. Find the ammonia discharges into the river and sort them out first.

    If this is not feasible, you can use aerated sand filters to remove both solids and ammonia simultaneously. It is like a conventional sand filter but operated in a way to deliberately allow a thin biofilm of nitrifiers to develop.

  43. Hi Ahmed, 

    Please give us an idea of the "high" ammonia level. Do you have a reservoir prior to your plant and what is the retention? I would like to propose a very effective solution we provide for the reduction of ammonia, nitrite etc in form of a organic certified, plant extract. dave@makroorganics.com

     

  44. Ahmed, what do you mean by "high", in terms of mg/L ammonia?

    I have seen sand filters used for ammonia removal from groundwater but these have a large footprint. I have developed a high-rate process, based on expanded bed biofilm reactor (EBBR) technology. Although developed for tertiary treatment of wastewater, the same process could be used for ammonia removal from raw water (surface or ground water). The key to the process is to supply sufficient dissolved oxygen to fully oxidise the ammonia to nitrate, and sufficient dissolved bicarbonate for the nitrifying bacteria to fix enough carbon for growth.

    During tertiary treatment of activated sludge settled effluent, the EBBR process was able to reduce the average ammonia concentration to 0.4 mg/L (as NH3-N), from an average inlet concentration of 21 mg/L. At times, it reduced it to 0.1 mg/L. The process also removed >50% of the residual organic matter (BOD), most likely through the activity of heterotrophic bacteria; >60% TSS and >85% bacteria, most likely through the activities of protozoa and rotifers; and 40-60% of the synthetic oestrogen, ethinyl oestradiol (EE2), most likely through hydroxylation by ammonia mono-oxygenase. 

    The process is not yet commercially available but we have developed it to Technology Readiness Level 7 (prototype package plant). Nevertheless, if you would like further information, please contact me at m.dempsey@mmu.ac.uk.