Performance of WWTPs and Improvement Ideas

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Performance of WWTPs and Improvement Ideas

Why do some waste water treatment plants perform badly? Please share your thoughts on how the performance of WWTPs could be improved. 

I stumbled upon an interactive map of status of WWTPs in Europe  that shows how every treatment plant in Europe is performing. The map was made by the European Environment Agency (EEA). 

Please share your experience about the equipment and methods you use and how effective the results are. 

What upgrades would you make if you had substantial funding? 

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8 Answers

  1. Thank you for your interesting question.
         If there was enough money - I would use a new technology VVR (vortex-wave reactor) based on the application of a rotating magnetic field for the cleaning and disinfection of wastewater.
         This technology allows you to:
    - Reduce footprint five times;
    - Reduce operating costs in the three times;
    - Reduce the sanitary protection zone to 20 meters,
         -otkazatsya from activated sludge and storage sites;
    - To use the residue as the organo-mineral fertilizer ... etc.
         Although the cost of equipment and construction and installation work following biological treatment by 30%. - It is quite advantageous to the owner and operator of this equipment.

  2. Please review information at www.Algix.com where different algae and water plants are converted to plastics.  I have know Ryan Hunt, Chief Technology Officer since he was a student at Univ. of Georgia.  His company is doing some remarkable things with algae.

  3. Potential wastewater reuse to co-products opportunities in the algae production industry (ie. biofertilizer, bioplastics and potential fuels. Algae is also being used to clean wastewater at City wastewater treatment facilities. A win-win.

     http://www.iwa-network.org/microalgae-sustainable-alternative-wastewater-treatment/

     http://news.rice.edu/2015/04/02/rice-u-study-algae-from-wastewater-solves-two-problems-2/

    For information contact: barry@nationalalgaeassociation.com

  4. Many years ago the US EPA developed a protocol to answer your question for any given facility which involves conducting a Comprehensive Performance Evaluation (CPE) of the facility.   Their protocol with it's "scoring" of points is a bit simplistic but the overall method of assessing performance limitations across the Design, Management, Operations, and Maintenance dimensions of a target facility under consideration will identify performance limitations and provide directions on which to base effective troubleshooting and optimization efforts going forward.  I believe you can still get copies of the CPE approach from the EPA and I'd recommend it to anyone doing troubleshooting or hoping to optimize performance of water and wastewater treatment facilities.

  5. Our companyhas developed a technologyfor cleaningof various kinds ofwaste water.wastewater treatmenttechnology is mucheasier and more efficient(cost ofelectricenergyis three times lower, andfootprintfive times less.)
    Completelyabsentsludgestorage areasof the activated sludge.
      Waterdisinfectedafter treatment.
      Imailed to youour presentationif yousendit to me..

  6. It could be numerous issues, bad design, lack of expertise, lack of fund, poor maintenance etc.. some of them are beyond repairs/improvements. Some believe that water is the authority responsibility or it a god given gift, it is expected. I believe there is a lack of education about WATER.    

  7. Dear Marina,

    Apparently this summary refers only to municipal sewage treatment plants (STP's) as opposed to the many more industrial wastewater treatment plants (WWTP's).

    The "why" question can largely be answered by the delays in the required STP upgrade investments by the local or regional authorities. State-of-the-art proven technology is readily available to meet the present EU water quality standards.

    For sustainable water reuse with ultralow levels of residual BOD, COD, TSS, turbidity, .... enabling reuse as potable water after further multiple barrier purification, we retrofit upgrade conventional CAS to advanced activated sludge AAS biological treatment. This upgrade boosts the microbial activity and diversity along with the density of the biosludge as to adsorb and biodegrade the slowly biodegradable and recalcitrant fraction of the sewage which would otherwise pass through the CAS based STP's.

    Regards, Bruno

  8. The performance of a disinfection tank can be improved as suggested in the attached manuscript.