AM-Team and Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht kick off a new project to fight N₂O emissions at the Amsterdam West treatment facility.

AM-Team and Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht started collaboration on the modelling of nitrous oxide (N₂0) emissions at the Amsterdam West wastewater treatment plant (> 1 million PE capacity). N₂0 is an approximately 300 times stronger greenhouse gas compared to CO₂ and as such significantly contributes to the overall carbon footprint of wastewater treatment.

AM-Team's state-of-the-art AMNOXA ^TM solution will be used to assess the N₂O emissions and virtually test mitigation strategies. AMNOXA ^TM takes into account the variation of N₂O both in space and time using a combination of spatial and dynamic models.

The spatial model will be used to conduct a full 3D N₂O hotspot analysis of the large bioreactors, revealing in which zones N₂O formation takes place. This screening will dramatically enhance process understanding through visualisation and will be important for later mitigation strategy testing.

A dynamic model will predict N₂O dynamics as function of time over long periods and will take into account the operational variations that are omnipresent in these systems.

The models will be extensively calibrated and validated based on years of monitoring data collected by Waterschap Amstel Gooi en Vecht.

AMNOXA ^TM will be used to test numerous 'what-if' scenarios for mitigation and general plant optimisation. The most promising measures will be tested onsite in a testing lane that can be controlled independently from the other lanes.

The project brings together a globally unique combination of tools, data, expertise and experience. AM-Team colleagues Dr. Giacomo Bellandi and Pieter Vlasschaert have succesfully kicked off the project in Amsterdam with Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht staff. Major milestones are expected to be achieved in the coming months.