Removal and Recovery of Ammonium Nitrogen from Dairy Processing Wastewater Using Air Stripping Technology: A Pilot-Scale Study

Ammonium nitrogen (NH4+-N) removal and recovery from wastewater have been critical issues worldwide and key to achieving a sustainable nitrogen cycle and circular economy. In this study, we designed and constructed a pilot-scale air stripping system integrated with a nutrient-capture unit and evaluated the effective pH, temperature, and airflow conditions for maximising NH4+-N removal and recovery from dairy processing wastewater (DPW). Our results demonstrated that increasing pH and temperature substantially enhances NH4+-N removal via air stripping, with higher airflow rates further improving performance. Under these conditions (pH 11, 32 °C, and 300 L min−1), NH4+-N removal from synthetic wastewater reached ≈40% after 6 h air stripping. In comparison, real DPW exhibited slightly lower removal efficiency under the same conditions, achieving ≈34%, likely due to its more complex matrix. Additionally, incorporating a chemical precipitation step followed by filtration prior to air stripping removed NH4+-N from DPW, achieving ≈43%. However, extending the stripping duration under identical conditions significantly improved removal performance, increasing NH4+-N removal in DPW to ≈70%. The downstream capturing system, consisting of acid bath and granulated activated carbon (GAC), consistently recovered 70–95% of the released ammonia (NH3) when even upstream NH4+-N removal via air stripping was moderate. The GAC effectively adsorbed the volatilised NH3, achieving adsorption capacities of up to ≈18 mg/kg. Overall, this integrated system demonstrates strong potential for simultaneous NH4+-N removal and recovery from industrial wastewater streams, offering notable environmental benefits.