A long term operation (22 months) of the sidestream treatment plant at the water and resource recovery facility at the Tilburg sewage works in The Netherlands is presented. This plant treats dewatering reject liquor from thermally hydrolysed (THP) and mesophillic anaerobically digested (MAD) biosolids. The sidestream plant is comprised of a Phospaq struvite reactor for removal and recovery of phosphate and an Anammox reactor for removal of ammoniacal nitrogen. Potential inhibiting characteristics of THP-MAD reject liquor were successfully mitigated by various measures like pre-aeration and addition of dilution water. The sidestream plant demonstrated excellent performance in handling large fluctuations in load and composition, producing effluent with stable low NH4 and BOD concentrations achieving removal efficiencies up to 90% on both NH4 and BOD.
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