Name
Low Total Nitrogen delivery: full-scale lessons from repurposed filters and modular biocatalyst systems
Authors
Alec Kimble, BI-Zen Ltd, UK
Nicolas Gardner and Hannah Le Marquand, South West Water, UK
Pete Pearce, Farmiloe Fisher Environment, UK
Ameen Razavi, Microvi, USA
Description

The delivery of low-total nitrogen consents is accelerating under WINEP and is expected to expand in AMP9. As water companies work to meet NTAL obligations, there is a growing need to identify practical, scalable biological solutions. In this context, South West Water has initiated an NTAL programme focused on options that can be deployed efficiently and integrated with existing wastewater infrastructure. Our presentation will share early full-scale learning from a 12-month programme evaluating two complementary approaches. First, a containerised MNEā„¢ system from Microvi Biotech offers a compact, modular biocatalyst system designed to sustain targeted microbial activity for nitrogen removal. We will cover commissioning and integration learnings, the operational envelop assessed (including temperature and load variability), and how performance is being quantified versus site objectives. Second, we describe a low-capital retrofit of an existing plastic media filter by adding an upstream anoxic stage. This configuration has improved ammonia treatment and delivered nitrate reduction without supplementary carbon dosing, demonstrating how existing assets can be repurposed to enhance performance at low cost. The paper highlights why these solutions are relevant now, how they could be scaled across the sector, and why this is timely as low-nitrogen schemes move from planning into delivery.

Track
Posters