Swine waste from a full-scale anaerobic digester was treated for nitrogen removal through partial nitritation coupled to anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) in a 20-L sequencing batch reactor. Digested waste came from an 8,000-head farm in North Carolina and was characterized by high ammonium content (>2,000 mg N/L) and a relatively high C:N ratio compared with influent of other anammox systems reported in the literature. The reactor was operated with intermittent pulses of oxygen, with dissolved oxygen concentrations maintained continuously below 0.1 mg/L. Under the final operating conditions, the reactor consumed 96% of the influent ammonium and 90% of the total N, with low nitrate in the effluent; no external alkalinity was required to maintain near-neutral pH. The majority of nitrogen removal occurred through anammox activity, which was supported by several observations indicating that nitrification/denitrification (with either nitrite or nitrate) was not the primary means of N removal. Oxygen consumption was at least 49% less than would be expected for complete nitrification of the waste, and the observed consumption of chemical oxygen demand and alkalinity were much less than would have been required for nitrification/denitrification. Nitrous oxide yield was 11% of the removed N, likely as a side product of aerobic ammonium oxidation; ammonia stripping was negligible. This study demonstrated that nitritation/anammox treatment of high-strength, anaerobically digested swine waste is technologically feasible in a one-reactor system under oxygen-limited conditions.
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