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OPERATIONAL TROUBLESHOOTING IN INDUSTRIAL BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT SYSTEMS Evan K. Nyer, Vice President Howard J. Bourgeois, Jr., Vice President Polybac Corporation Allentown, Pennsylvania 18103 The basis of biological treatment is the abdity of bacteria to degrade and ingest a wide variety of organic material. All of the steel and cement that has been constructed for secondary treatment does not do one bit of treatment. The bacteria do the entire job. While there would be little disagreement with this statement, when a plant needs to improve its effluent quality engineers turn to the cement and steel not to the bacteria. Everyone accepts that the right environment must be maintained for biological treatment. The problem is that we too often gloss over the basics. In general, of the plants that we have worked with, 20% do not maintain or even measure the oxygen concentration in the aeration tank. One quarter of the plants do not control pH except for effluent discharge limitation. Nutrients are normally ignored. If the plant was originally designed to add nutrients they are added, most of the time. Not much can be done about temperature once the system has been budt but design engineers have almost totally ignored temperature variations as a criteria. As environmental engineers we have done a great job of teaching people to concentrate on the equipment but have subsequently taught them to assume too much about the reaction itself. To optimize the installed equipment operators must be made to realize the reasons for addition of nutrients and maintaining pH and dissolved oxygen. A living organism is doing the job for them not the tanks and pipes. Engineers and operators too often lose sight of the living nature of a biological treatment system. Models and designs assume the correct environment, the correct bacteria and steady state conditions. It is taken for granted that the correct pH, temperature, NH3, P04, micro nutrients, and 02 level will be maintained in the system. It is assumed that the bacteria will naturally want to be in the system and stay in the system no matter what we do to them. Finally, it is assumed that nothing will change during the operation. We also assume too much about the bacteria. The bacteria must also be considered one of the basics in biological treatment. Normal operations subject the bacteria to changes in 02, pH, temperature, organic load, specific chemicals, etc. The limitations of many wastewater treatment systems is how fast the bacteria can change to the new conditions. But, no matter what, we assume that bacteria wdl naturally adapt to these conditions. The following case histories give full scale evaluations of the use of "better" bacteria in conjunction with the natural population. The three examples will cover an aerobic lagoon, activated sludge plant, and filamentous growth in a municipal plant. In operations of secondary wastewater treatment plants we must re-emphasize the basics of biological degradation. The following data will show that the bacteria must be included in this emphasis of basics. "BETTER" BACTERIA-SELECTIVE ADAPTATION AND MUTATION The process of selective adaptation and mutation for obtaining microbes with specialized capabilities is not novel. However, the process of applying this technology to waste treatment on a commercial scale with effective results is relatively new. Through the process of selective adaptation, microbes are selected from nature based on their ability to service environments containing relatively uncommon or unnatural organic compounds and then 849
Object Description
Purdue Identification Number | ETRIWC198084 |
Title | Operational troubleshooting in industrial biological treatment systems |
Author |
Nyer, Evan K. Bourgeois, Howard J. |
Date of Original | 1980 |
Conference Title | Proceedings of the 35th Industrial Waste Conference |
Conference Front Matter (copy and paste) | http://earchives.lib.purdue.edu/u?/engext,31542 |
Extent of Original | p. 849-854 |
Collection Title | Engineering Technical Reports Collection, Purdue University |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Rights Statement | Digital object copyright Purdue University. All rights reserved. |
Language | eng |
Type (DCMI) | text |
Format | JP2 |
Date Digitized | 2009-10-22 |
Capture Device | Fujitsu fi-5650C |
Capture Details | ScandAll 21 |
Resolution | 300 ppi |
Color Depth | 8 bit |
Description
Title | page 849 |
Collection Title | Engineering Technical Reports Collection, Purdue University |
Repository | Purdue University Libraries |
Rights Statement | Digital copyright Purdue University. All rights reserved. |
Language | eng |
Type (DCMI) | text |
Format | JP2 |
Capture Device | Fujitsu fi-5650C |
Capture Details | ScandAll 21 |
Transcript | OPERATIONAL TROUBLESHOOTING IN INDUSTRIAL BIOLOGICAL TREATMENT SYSTEMS Evan K. Nyer, Vice President Howard J. Bourgeois, Jr., Vice President Polybac Corporation Allentown, Pennsylvania 18103 The basis of biological treatment is the abdity of bacteria to degrade and ingest a wide variety of organic material. All of the steel and cement that has been constructed for secondary treatment does not do one bit of treatment. The bacteria do the entire job. While there would be little disagreement with this statement, when a plant needs to improve its effluent quality engineers turn to the cement and steel not to the bacteria. Everyone accepts that the right environment must be maintained for biological treatment. The problem is that we too often gloss over the basics. In general, of the plants that we have worked with, 20% do not maintain or even measure the oxygen concentration in the aeration tank. One quarter of the plants do not control pH except for effluent discharge limitation. Nutrients are normally ignored. If the plant was originally designed to add nutrients they are added, most of the time. Not much can be done about temperature once the system has been budt but design engineers have almost totally ignored temperature variations as a criteria. As environmental engineers we have done a great job of teaching people to concentrate on the equipment but have subsequently taught them to assume too much about the reaction itself. To optimize the installed equipment operators must be made to realize the reasons for addition of nutrients and maintaining pH and dissolved oxygen. A living organism is doing the job for them not the tanks and pipes. Engineers and operators too often lose sight of the living nature of a biological treatment system. Models and designs assume the correct environment, the correct bacteria and steady state conditions. It is taken for granted that the correct pH, temperature, NH3, P04, micro nutrients, and 02 level will be maintained in the system. It is assumed that the bacteria will naturally want to be in the system and stay in the system no matter what we do to them. Finally, it is assumed that nothing will change during the operation. We also assume too much about the bacteria. The bacteria must also be considered one of the basics in biological treatment. Normal operations subject the bacteria to changes in 02, pH, temperature, organic load, specific chemicals, etc. The limitations of many wastewater treatment systems is how fast the bacteria can change to the new conditions. But, no matter what, we assume that bacteria wdl naturally adapt to these conditions. The following case histories give full scale evaluations of the use of "better" bacteria in conjunction with the natural population. The three examples will cover an aerobic lagoon, activated sludge plant, and filamentous growth in a municipal plant. In operations of secondary wastewater treatment plants we must re-emphasize the basics of biological degradation. The following data will show that the bacteria must be included in this emphasis of basics. "BETTER" BACTERIA-SELECTIVE ADAPTATION AND MUTATION The process of selective adaptation and mutation for obtaining microbes with specialized capabilities is not novel. However, the process of applying this technology to waste treatment on a commercial scale with effective results is relatively new. Through the process of selective adaptation, microbes are selected from nature based on their ability to service environments containing relatively uncommon or unnatural organic compounds and then 849 |
Resolution | 300 ppi |
Color Depth | 8 bit |
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