The Effectiveness of Nitrogen Removal from Wastewater using Ammonia

Because of its potential for causing eutrophication within aquatic ecosystems, it is important to remove nitrogen from wastewater. There are many ways to remove nitrogen from wastewater. These include biological, chemical and physical methods. The most common method for nitrogen removal is ammonium based. This uses ammonium NH4+. The process of converting ammonium (NH4+) to nitrate by microbial oxygenation results in the removal of the nitrogen from wastewater. A number of factors affect the effectiveness of an ammonium-based process for nitrogen removal. These include the population of microorganisms, pH, oxygen availability, and how well the water is treated. Additionally, organic matter may affect the effectiveness of the process. The ammonium base nitrogen removal method has been shown to be more efficient than other methods in the removal of nitrogen. Studies show that it can remove nitrogen from water with efficiencies up to 98% (Vervoort and al. 2016; Matsui and al. 2020). It is inexpensive and consumes very little energy.