Microbial production of nitrous oxide coupled with chemical reaction of gaseous nitrous oxide including phosphorus recovery and nitrite reduction to nitrous oxide
AssigneeThe Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
InventorsYaniv D. Scherson, Brian J. Cantwell, Craig S. Criddle
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Abstract
A method to produce N2O from organic nitrogen and/or reactive nitrogen in waste uses a bioreactor coupled to a hardware reactor device in which the N2O is consumed in a gas phase chemical reaction, e.g., catalytic decomposition to form oxygen and nitrogen gas. Heat from the exothermic reaction may be used to generate power. The N2O may alternatively be used as an oxidant or co-oxidant in a combustion reaction, e.g., in the combustion of methane.
Claims12
A method for wastewater treatment and energy production wherein nitrogen is removed from wastewater and converted to nitrous oxide and wherein energy is produced from the nitrous oxide, the method comprising:
- a) pumping the wastewater into a bioreactor system, wherein the wastewater comprises nitrogen compounds;
- b) processing in the bioreactor system the nitrogen compounds in the wastewater to produce a nitrous oxide product;
- c) forming a nitrous oxide gas stream from the nitrous oxide product of the bioreactor system;
- d) chemically reacting the nitrous oxide gas stream in a hardware reactor device coupled to the bioreactor system to produce energy obtained from the nitrous oxide product of the bioreactor system,
- whereby energy is produced from the nitrogen compounds in the wastewater.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.