Ammonical Nitrogen : Latest standard by Pollution control Board

[Rajesh Kumar .N]

Team,

Need your input on the following

Latest standard of Ammonical nitrogen is 5 mg/litre by Pollution control board.

whether it already started referring in monthly report of TNPCB ROA?

Could you please share your technical expertise on the Ammonical nitrogen:

Major source for Ammonical nitrogen. ( Mainly in sewage treatment system)

steps to be taken if there is an increase of Ammonical nitrogen in Sewage treatment system

Thank you

environmentrajesh@gmail

[sangeeta agarwal]

NH3 as a main source:
1. Urine
2.Urea and N contained fertiliser
3. NH4OH as a solvent used in Industry
4. Ammonia solution used in bleaching
5. Nitrogen fixind bacteria
6. Non symbiotic bacteria present in legume family

[Amit Kumar William Christian]

The Major source of Ammonical Nitrogen in Sewage is Urea discharged in Urine. Urea is highly instable compound which then converts to Ammonia and based on pH of the water, it is bifurcated between Ammonia and Hydrolyzed Ammonia which We call Ammoniacal nitrogen (NH4.N+). Apart from that We have lot of fecal discharge in Sewage which also carriers Organically bound nitrogen which upon hydrolysis during BOD/COD removal process gets converted to Ammoniacal Nitrogen. 

During the BOD/COD removal, a lot of biomass is produced which accumulates a portion of nitrogen aka Ammoniacal nitrogen present in the sewage. Bacteria takes only Ammonical nitrogen for cell synthesis. If your STP is still discharging a lot of ammonical nitrogen then you need to convert your BOD removal only system into Nitrogen removal system in which Ammoniacal nitrogen is converted to Nitrate Nitrogen in the presence of Nitrifying bacteria and Oxygen.