Sustainable Removal of Nitrates from Wastewater Using Membrane Bioreactors

The presence of nitrogen compounds in surface and groundwater is a serious concern. The treatment technologies currently used, based mainly on membrane and ion exchange processes, are expensive, complex and above all not very selective. On the other hand, biological processes are very efficient and selective towards nitrate, but the phases following denitrification, in which the treated water is separated from the biomass (potentially harmful to public health), are still very expensive. In this work, an original solution is proposed that combines biological treatment with the use of membranes to keep the water to be treated separate from bacterial cultures, thus limiting or eliminating the subsequent disinfection stages. As a result, efficiencies of up to 98% are achieved depending on operating conditions, while keeping costs low.