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Characterisation and identification of viable products from nitrogen rich agricultural wastewater

Brennan, Brian orcid logoORCID: 0000-0003-1869-2140 (2021) Characterisation and identification of viable products from nitrogen rich agricultural wastewater. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.

Abstract
Nitrogen levels in agricultural wastewater pose to be one of the greatest threats on the environment, requiring rigorous treatment before being released to receiving waters. In recent years, the dairy and beef sectors have increased capacity resulting in increased volumes of wastewater, leading to greater operation costs for wastewater treatment. Scientists and engineers have been investigating novel treatment methods to attempt reducing costs of treatment. One such method to reduce costs, which has received little research interest is utilising the wastewater to produce viable products. This thesis reviews how nitrogen in slaughterhouse related wastewater and dairy related wastewater can be utilised to produce viable products. Nannochloropsis sp. microalgae is cultivated on dairy wastewater and the produced fatty acids are extracted under optimum conditions to identify what viable products can be produced such as biodiesel or nutraceuticals. Hydrophobic membrane contactors are investigated and used to recover ammonia from rendering condensate wastewater to produce an ammonium sulfate fertilizer. The results demonstrated that Nannochloropsis sp. allowed for up to 90 % nitrogen removal while producing 0.36 ng of C20:5ω3 in 2 mg of Nannochloropsis sp. which is a characteristic fatty acid of omega-3 supplements which can help prevent against cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and arthritis. The incorporation of polytetrafluoroethylene hydrophobic membrane contactors allowed for the recovery of ammonia from rendering condensate wastewater. The membrane contactors removed up to 65 % of the nitrogen from the wastewater and the recovered product contained a 30 % ammonium sulfate product which can be used as a competitive agriculture fertilizer compared to products already on the market. The presented thesis demonstrates agricultural wastewater has great potential to be utilised to produce viable products from its nitrogen content, but further research is required to increase the efficiency of its recovery methods.
Metadata
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:November 2021
Refereed:No
Supervisor(s):Regan, Fiona and Lawler, Jenny
Subjects:Physical Sciences > Analytical chemistry
Physical Sciences > Environmental chemistry
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Science and Health > School of Chemical Sciences
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. View License
ID Code:26229
Deposited On:28 Oct 2021 16:01 by Fiona Regan . Last Modified 28 Oct 2021 16:06
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