8th IWA Specialized Conference on Small Water and Wastewater Systems (SWWS) and 2nd IWA Specialized Conference

on Decentralised Water and

Wastewater International Network (DEWSIN), Coimbatore, India - February 6th to 9th, 2008
041

Volume reduction and concentration enhancement of nutrients

of raw and digested blackwater by evaporation
. Alp*, J. Nie*, F. Tettenborn*, R. Otterpohl*
* Institute of Wastewater Management and Water Protection, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH),
Eissendorfer Strasse 42, 21073 Hamburg, Germany
E-mail: oeznur.alp@tuhh.de; niejianwen@hotmail.com; tettenborn@tuhh.de; ro@tuhh.de

Abstract Within the Ecological Sanitation concepts domestic wastewaters are separated at
source. As substrate blackwater (BW) was provided from vacuum toilets in a source separation
pilot project and digested in bench scale CSTRs. This study presents the results of evaporation of
raw and anaerobically digested blackwater with lab scale rotation evaporator. Evaporation
process was carried out with acidified and non-acidified substrates. By evaporation process
volume reduction of 94 % is achieved. Therefore, nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus were
concentrated respectively 7.3 and 10.6 times. Results show that nitrogen and phosphorus could
have been recycled more when the substrate is acidified. When the pH of the substrate is around
5.0, 80% of the nitrogen and 95% of the phosphorus are recovered. Laboratory experiments also
proved that evaporation removes significantly coliform bacteria.
The concentrate solution of evaporation process can be used as highly enriched nutrient solution.
Distillates need further treatment to remove and recover nitrogen.
Keywords Anaerobic digestion, blackwater, Ecological Sanitation, evaporation, nutrient concentration

INTRODUCTION
As the world population is growing and climatic conditions are worsening, water scarcity is rising.
Water scarcity and soil degradation, are crucial importance and alternatives are urgently required
in many regions of the world. Only sustainable solutions can mitigate these global challenges. The
only really sustainable solution is to close the loops by reuse of water, nutrients and organic
carbon, and by recovery of energy. For rural and peri urban areas, alternative, innovative
solutions, so called Ecological Sanitation (EcoSan) or Decentralized Sanitation and Reuse
(DESAR), have been developed (Otterpohl and Lange 2000; Lens et al. 2001; Kujawa-Roeleveld
et al. 2003), applied and are available today. This new approach contains a cycle in which
nutrients from urine and faeces are stored on site and sanitised and then, if necessary, further
processed for recycling them in agriculture.
A number of wastewater streams of different characteristics and composition are produced in a
household as a result of various human activities. They can be generally divided into diluted and
concentrated streams. The most concentrated streams originate from the toilet (blackwater) and
from the kitchen (solid kitchen refuse generated during meals preparation and food leftovers).
Relatively diluted streams are produced in the bathroom (greywater), during textiles washing, and
partially from the kitchen (food preparation and washing the dishes) (STOWA, 2005).
As it is shown in table 1, blackwater contains a high amount of nutrients and also trace elements
that are important for the growth of plants thus can also be considered as fertilizer. On the other
hand, in some countries the reuse of nutrients contained in blackwater by spreading onto fields is
not allowed. Additionally for mega cities where agricultural areas for application can only be
found in a distance, the amounts of blackwater would be so large, therefore economical storage
and transport to agricultural fields is questionable (Tettenborn et al. 2006). Therefore, new
approaches have to be found to reduce volumes of blackwater and to extract contained nutrients.

Evaporation is the most straightforward technology for removing water from wastewater. Some
studies for volume reduction of wastewater are described in the literature (Duarte and Neto 1996;
McKeough und Fagerns 1999; Lind et al. 2001; Maurer et al. 2006) but not for blackwater.
Evaporation at high temperature is also effective for hygienisation (Maurer et al. 2006). However,
the evaporation process is energy consumptive. A small evaporation unit that was operated to
process urine and N-depleted urine in demo-scale had an energy demand of about 2 200 MJ/m3
(611 kWh/m3) (Tettenborn et al. 2006). The energy consumption can be minimized by energy
recovery (e.g. anaerobic digestion).
Table 1. Characteristics of the main components of household wastewater (Otterpohl, 2001)

N
P
K
COD

Yearly loads

Greywater

Blackwater

kg/P.year

25.000 100.000
l/P.year
~3
~ 10
~ 34
~ 41

~ 550
l/P.year
~ 97
~ 90
~ 66
~ 59

~45
~ 0.75
~ 1.8
~ 30

The main objective of this research is to present the study of the improvement of the evaporation
process as an alternative solution to reduce the volume of raw blackwater and anaerobically
digested blackwater and its effect to hygienisation aspects.
In this study, blackwater was obtained from the Ecological housing estate Lbeck Flintenbreite,
Germany, which has been realized in 2000 (Otterpohl et al. 1997; Wendland and Oldenburg
2003). Black and greywater are collected and treated separately. Blackwater is collected by low
flush vacuum toilets (0.7 l water/per flush). Blackwater is also treated anaerobically before it is
evaporated, whereas anaerobic digestion is the only process which removes and, at the same time,
converts the organic carbon in the waste (water) to a valuable product, biogas. Therefore, it is
profitable to apply anaerobic digestion within the EcoSan concept (Elmitwalli et al. 2006).
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Experimental set-up and analysis
Continuously stirred tank reactor. The bench scale pilot plant was installed in the laboratory of the
Hamburg University of Technology. The pilot plant consisted of two parallel continuously stirred
tank reactors (CSTR) (10 l each, made of PVC) kept at mesophilic temperature (37.5 C) in a
heated water tub (Figure 2). Gas volume produced by the reactors was measured by the
replacement method. The pH values of influent and effluent are measured three times a week.
Both reactors were started with adapted sludge and they were fed discontinuously three times
(each 1 l) per week with blackwater obtained from the source separation pilot project LbeckFlintenbreite. Hydraulic retention time (HRT) of the reactors was 20 days.

Gas volume
measurement

Stirrer

37.5 0C
Heater

10 l

U-Tube for
pressure
equalization

Figure 1. Experimental set-up of CSTR

Evaporation. For the volume reduction process lab scale rotation evaporator (RotaVap) was
operated (Figure 2). The rotating glass bulb (500 ml) was heated in an oil bath. Using a water-jet
pump, the system was set a vacuum of -300 mbar. In order to obtain a larger volume of the
concentrate, the glass bulb was refilled manually when the liquid level dropped below 25 ml.
During the evaporation process digested and raw blackwater were used as substrate. Experiments
were carried out with acidified and non-acidified substrates. For the acidification process, pH
values of substrates were lowered to pH 6.00 and pH 5.00 by using 96 % H2SO4 to avoid
excessive losses of nitrogen in form of ammonia. Per hour about 60 ml were evaporated and
extracted from the system as distillate. Distillate samples were taken before refilling the bulb with
the new substrate. Concentrate samples were taken at the end of the process.

Figure 2. Scheme of the evaporation process

E.coli. E.coli was analyzed by spreading the sample material on the surface of Chromocult
coliform agar plates and incubating at 35 C for 24h (Merck).
Streptococcus. Streptococcus analyses for the substrates were performed by the pour plate method.
KF Streptococcus Agar Base was used as agar and incubated at 35 C for 48h (Merck).

Substrates. In this study two types of blackwater were used as substrate: raw and digested
blackwater.
Total nitrogen (TN), total solids (TS), volatile solids (VS) and buffer capacity analyses were
carried out according to Standard Methods (APHA, 1989), total phosphorus (TP) concentrations
were measured using cuvette test method.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Table 2 presents the characteristics of substrates used during the evaporation process.
Table 2. Characteristics of the substrates
pH

Buffer
capacity
[mmol/l]

TS

VS

TN

TP

[%]

[%TS]

[mg/l]

[mg/l]

7.7

88

0.5

60

1280

61

5.9

0.6

55

1287

107

4.9

0.7

53

1414

108

7.9

80

0.3

44

846

96

6.0

0.5

39

1023

101

5.0

0.7

71

1199

105

Substrate
Raw BW
(A1)
Acidified Raw BW
(A2)
Acidified Raw BW
(A3)
Digested BW
(B1)
Acidified Digested
BW (B2)
Acidified Digested
BW (B3)

As Maurer stated; one the main challenges for evaporation of urine is loss of ammonia. In this
study, ammonia loss was prevented by acidification. In order to increase pH of 1 litre of raw BW
from 7.4 to pH 6.0 and 5.0, 1.3 and 1.9 ml H2SO4 was used respectively. To increase the pH of 1
litre of digested BW from 7.7 to pH 6.0 and 5.0, 1.2 and 2.1 ml was used respectively.
By evaporation process, concentration factors of 10.6 and 7.3 could be obtained for phosphorus
and nitrogen respectively, while the volume reduction factor was 94%.
Analysis results of the substrate A1 and B1 showed that during the evaporation process, some of
the nitrogen was probably lost in form of ammonia and obtained in distillate, while distillates were
nearly free of phosphorus (Figure 3). Therefore pH values of the substrates A2, B2 and A3, B3
were lowered to 6.0 and 5.0 respectively. The results showed clearly that with acidification of
substrates (A2, A3, B2 and B3), nitrogen can be more captured in the concentrate (Figure 4).
Thus, yield of the nutrient enrichment in the concentrate is higher. The percentage of loss nitrogen
was almost the same for both raw and digested blackwater substrates.

TN

10

100

80
Loss [%]

Loss [%]

TP

6
4
2

0.19

0.2

0.21

0.07

0.06

0.18

A1

A2

A3

B1

B2

B3

60
40
20
0

A1

A2

A3

B1

B2

B3

Substrate

Substrate

Figure 3 and 4. Loss of total phosphorus and total nitrogen (found in the distillate)

Nutrients in the Concentrate

100
C o n c. [% ]

80
60

TN
TP

40
20
0
A1

A2

A3

B1

Substrates

B2

B3

Conc.: Concentration

Figure 5. Total nitrogen and total phosphorus concentrations in the concentrate

As it is shown in figure 5, total phosphorus concentrations in the concentrate are almost the same
for raw and blackwater, either acidified or non-acidified. But total nitrogen concentrations in the
concentrate increases, where the pH decreases. The maximum TN and TP concentrations in the
concentrate were obtained from the substrate A3.
During the evaporation process no foaming, splashing or crystallization was occurred. But a thick
layer of matter was observed on the bulb surface. For non-acidified substrates the layer was
thicker than for acidified ones. This layer could be dissolved with warm water partially (defined as
recyclable). In this fraction, total phosphorus and total nitrogen were analyzed. Results are given
in figure 6.
Figure 6 shows the concentration distributions over different fractions. It is found that, nitrogen
could have been recycled significantly more when the substrate is acidified. In order to recycle of
phosphorus, pH played an important role as well. When the pH of the substrate is around 5.0, 80%
of the nitrogen and 95% of the phosphorus are recovered.

Figure 6. Nitrogen and phosphorus balance in the substrates (Volume reduction factor 94%)
Raw
Blackwater

Digested
Blackwater

Distillate

Concentrate

Figure 7. Appearance of different substrates before and after evaporation

Laboratory experiments also proved that evaporation removes significantly coliform bacteria.
Concentrate and distillate were completely free of coliform bacteria (Figure 8 and 9). The result
agrees with the results obtained by Maurer, indicating that evaporation is a highly effective
method in activation of E.coli and Streptococcus.

Figure 8. E.coli results of the concentrate (left) and distillate (right)

Figure 9. Streptococcus results of the concentrate (left) and distillate (right)

CONCLUSIONS
The aim of this study was to reduce the volume of raw and anaerobically digested blackwater and
to yield a highly concentrated nutrient solution. The results show that evaporation is a promising
method not only for reducing the volume and concentrating valuable nutrients but also for the
hygienisation.
Results prove that acidification is an effective way of preventing the loss of nitrogen in form of
ammonia. Acidification of raw and digested blackwater does not require large quantities of acid.
Since sulphuric acid can lead to corrosion in most of the regular evaporation plants, phosphoric
acid might be an alternative, when using conventional evaporation units. Prices for phosphoric
acid are higher than for sulphuric acid, but on the other hand the yielded concentrate will also be
more valuable because of its high P-content.
Results showed that volume reduction of 94% was achieved. By volume reduction, transportation
costs of wastewater can be reduced dramatically. Since evaporation is an energy demand process,
the energy consumption can be minimized by energy recovery. Therefore, anaerobic digestion can
be an alternative to provide energy. In the future more studies will be conducted regarding the
costs of an evaporation plant combined with an anaerobic digester.
The concentrate can be used as highly enriched nutrient solution, while it does not contain any
coliform bacteria. Distillates need further treatment to remove and recover nitrogen.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The first author acknowledges the IPSWaT Program International Postgraduate Studies in Water
Technologies, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for providing
her a Ph.D. fellowship to carry out this research.
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