Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Carbon dioxide emissions are one of the main contributors to global warming. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) processes have been implemented worldwide to mitigate CO2 emissions and prevent climate change and global warming. The wastewater produced by CCS processes using amine solvents is contaminated by amines, amine derivatives, and sulphate, which may cause ammonia toxification, eutrophication, drainage clogs, and pipe corrosion. Currently, no cost-effective technologies are available for CCS wastewater treatment, which raises significant environmental concerns while evaluating CCS projects and reduces public/political support for CCS technologies. OBJECTIVE: The proposed research program will develop a cost-effective biological treatment system for reclamation wastewater generated from CCS processes. The reclaimed water should be of sufficient quality for onsite reuse in CCS processes. SCIENTIFIC APPROACH: The proposed research program is to develop and pilot test a sulfammox-based anaerobic hybrid membrane bioreactor. This process can significantly reduce amine and sulphate concentrations with minimal exogenous carbon demand, chemical addition, and energy inputs. The compact size of the bioreactor and high-quality effluent achievable through membrane separation make this approach ideal for onsite CCS wastewater treatment and reuse. To date, the fundamental challenges are the limited availability of sulfammox bacteria worldwide. In addition, the slow growth rate of the sulfammox bacteria leads to the technical challenges associated with biomass retention and cultivation. The proposed research program will start with sulfammox bacteria enrichment using the sludge collected from wastewater treatment plants. The sulfammox process will then be integrated into an anaerobic hybrid membrane bioreactor, optimized, and evaluated for the treatment of CCS wastewater. Experiments will be conducted to determine the optimal operating conditions to obtain the best quality of treatment. The proposed treatment process will be modelled using BioWin software to create a tool to guide the development of future full-scale applications. SIGNIFICANCE: Carbon capture has the potential to be a keystone technology in the fight against climate change, but only if the environmental concerns regarding its waste products are addressed. The successful development of the proposed technology will constitute a significant advancement in industrial wastewater treatment and significantly improve the support and viability of CCS technologies. The proposed system will directly reduce the existing costs associated with hazardous waste disposal, wastewater treatment and storage, and freshwater consumption. This research will contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by promoting more installation of cost-effective carbon capture and storage processes and onsite reuse of the reclaimed water in CCS processes.