FCC Aqualia was selected as the awardee
of a project for executing the Anammox
(anaerobic ammonia oxidation) system to
be installed at the Guillarei waste water
treatment facility in Tui, province of Ponte-
vedra. This will be the first installation of its
kind nationwide.
Anammox technology makes it possible to
remove nitrogen more efficiently than in the
conventional process, consuming 60% less
oxygen and producing only 10% of sludge.
Knowledge
R+D+i
results:
a real-scale
facility
Tui (Pontevedra)
FCC Aqualia has conducted significant
research activity at the Guillarei waste
water treatment plant in Tui (Pontevedra).
At this facility, the company is carrying
out a project to eliminate nitrogen in the
water line and to recover phosphorus
in a more efficient manner.
It is best applied in hot and concentrated
effluents such as those drained from the
centrifuges after anaerobic digestion –
which represents a load of up to 20% of
the biological waste water treatment. The
elimination of this load reduces operating
costs and improves the quality of effluents.
As detected in the first industrial plants in
Holland, the problem with this technology
is that the specific Anammox bacteria were
very sensitive and presented a very low
growth rate. Over the past few years, FCC
Aqualia’s researchers have been working
precisely to address this problem, jointly
with the University of Santiago de Com-
