NUTRIENT REMOVAL CASE STUDIES & WHITE PAPERS

Aerobic Digester Reduces Nutrient Return And Improves Energy Efficiency

Faced with rising operational costs due to increasing energy and chemical prices, as well as stricter effluent permit limits, many operators and engineers are turning to performance optimizers and controls automation to enhance treatment processes and reduce operating costs while limiting capital expenses.

• World’s Largest Denitrification Plant Helps Tampa Bay Reduce Nutrient Pollution
• Denitrification Filters Meet Strict, Varying Nitrogen Limits

• Award-Winning Design Helps WWTP Protect Chesapeake Bay Watershed

  Arlington County’s Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) in South Arlington, VA, is located on 35 acres of land squeezed into a commercial/residential neighborhood less than a mile west of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The facility treats flows from nearly all of Arlington. In addition, nearly 20 percent of the plant’s flow comes from neighboring localities such as Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Falls Church. Effluent from the plant is discharged into Four Mile Run to the south, which feeds into the Potomac River and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay.

• Methanol Dosing Technology Helps Denitrification System Pass Rigorous Performance Test

  In 2007, Greenville, SC-based Western Carolina Regional Sewer Authority (WCRSA) conducted a rigorous performance test on a new tertiary treatment technology to assess its ability to effectively remove nitrate-nitrogen (NO3-N) without using excess amounts of methanol at its Lower Reedy Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP).

• Denitrification/Filtration Technology Helps Wastewater Treatment Plant Meet China’s Stringent Class 1A Standards

  As a result of China’s rapid economic development in recent years, the country has implemented more stringent environmental standards. Local environmental protection departments now require most urban wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) to apply strict enforcement measures to meet Class IA effluent discharge standards according to the Discharge Standard of Pollutants for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant (GB18918-2002).

• Harmful Algae: How To Stay Ahead Of The Bloom

  It’s the call no water treatment plant superintendent wants to receive, especially not while on vacation. Andy McClure, Superintendent of Toledo, Ohio’s Collins Park Water Treatment Plant, answered his phone to hear his head of operations report that the level of microcystin in the finished water was high, caused by a large harmful algal bloom (HAB) that was impacting the plant’s Lake Erie intake.

• Polyblend® Mechanical Polymer Activation System Outperforms Hydraulic Polymer Mixing Unit

  Henry N. Wochholz Regional Water Recycling Facility (WRWRF) consists of primary, advanced biological secondary and tertiary treatment with advanced total nitrogen removal. Always interested in enhanced treatment performance, the staff members recently examined the polymer use of the existing dewatering belt filter presses. 

• Aerobic Treatment Of Wastewater For Fish Flour And Fish Oil Company Reuse

  A fish flour and fish oil processing company produces 100 tons of flour a day from fish waste resulting from the broth concentration plant and from drying of flour, washing water, boiler blowdown and cooling towers. The company needed to treat its wastewater and to reduce its water supply costs.

• Savings Helps MABRs Gain Traction In Municipalities

  An MABR is essentially a biological wastewater treatment process that utilizes seemingly passive aeration through oxygen-permeable membranes. Oxygen transfer through the MABR membranes is diffusion based: driven by concentration differences such that oxygen passes from air at atmospheric pressure into water at a higher hydrostatic pressure. This oxygen transfer mechanism, wherein air is supplied to the process at very low pressure, is the reason MABRs have significantly lower energy consumption compared to other wastewater treatment processes, such as conventional activated sludge (CAS), that utilize diffusers. This energy savings is one of the key reasons MABRs are gaining traction in the municipal wastewater industry.

• Optimizing Chemical Dosing Reduces Chemical Use While Meeting Effluent TP Limits

  The city of Black River Falls in Wisconsin used chemical treatment with ferric chloride (FeCl3) to achieve their effluent total phosphorus (TP) permit of 1.0 mg/l. Historically, the chemical dosing rate was manually adjusted on a daily basis based on the measured effluent TP concentration. The plant was upgraded with an OSCAR process performance optimizer control system with phosphorus controller, which uses continuous measurement of orthophosphate. Read the full case study to learn more.

• Do More With Less: Integrating Nutrient Removal Control Improves Treatment Capacity And Efficiency

  Wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) are facing many challenges. Permits on nitrogen and phosphorus in the effluent water are progressively becoming stricter in order to protect surface waters from eutrophication. At the same time, plants are required to reduce both energy and chemical consumption and are often challenged with limited time and staff. In total, they are required to do more with less. In order to meet these challenges, a plant with a Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) in Green Lake, Wisconsin was upgraded with an advanced process control system – the OSCAR process performance optimizer with NURO controller.

• Efficacy Of Electrocoagulation Technology On Selenium-Contaminated Mine Effluent

  This paper helps to understand the efficacy of BakerCorp Electrocoagulation (EC) technology and treatment process in treating selenium-contaminated mine effluent. Two mine effluent samples were treated by Baker EC. Selenium constituent concentrations in both water samples were reduced significantly to below reporting qualification limits. Based on the results of the effluent samples, electrocoagulation is an effective treatment option for waste streams found to contain selenium.

Granular Activated Carbon: A Long-Term Solution For Meeting DPB Compliance

When the Cobb County-Marietta Water Authority (CCMWA) anticipated the need to upgrade the Hugh A. Wyckoff water treatment plant, they turned to granular activated carbon (GAC) technology after vetting several alternatives. The plant, a wholesaler in a two-plant system, processes up to 72 million gallons per day and serves about 350,000 people. Comprising of Wyckoff and the James E. Quarles treatment plant, CCMWA is the second largest water provider in Georgia.

• A Wastewater Solution With Low Capital Costs
• Bowling Green Municipal Utilities (BGMU) Uses One Of The Country’s Largest SBR Systems To Meet Current And Future Permit Limits And Environmental Goals