Biological nutrient removal at a very low-loaded activated sludge plant with high biomass concentrations

Abstract

The Laboratory of Environmental Engineering at the Helsinki University of Technology (HUT) carried out in 1991-1995 two successive full-scale research and development projects at the Pihlajaniemi WWTP of Savonlinna concerning biological nutrient removal from municipal wastewater. The projects have resulted in two reports in Finnish with quite large English summaries. This WWTP was constructed originally (1978) as a conventional low-loaded activated sludge plant with the simultaneous precipitation of phosphorus. It was dimensioned for a sludge concentration of 3.5 kgMLSS/m3 in the aeration tanks. Six years later (1984) the plant was fitted with a tertiary stage of flotation filters in order to improve the removal of suspended solids and phosphorus. Nitrification was introduced to the activated sludge process of the plant in 1987. It could be done without any extension by using the sludge concentrations of 6-10 kgMLSS/m3 in the aeration tanks. In that way, this activated sludge process was converted into a very low-loaded one. The process became able to nitrify totally in the circumstances in which the wastewater temperature varies at the range of 4-20°C. The actual hydraulic as well as the BOD7-load of the plant are about 40% of the original dimensioned ones. This activated sludge process of the Pihlajaniemi WWTP was modified in 1991-1993 for nitrogen removal and then in 1994-1995 for both biological phosphorus and nitrogen removal Denitrification was introduced to the process and the simultaneous precipitation of phosphorus in that was replaced by biological phosphorus removal still without any extension of the activated sludge process. The plant has now been operated over four years with biological nutrient removal exploiting the organic carbon compounds of the wastewater. A very little addition of some precipitant is used to improve the biological removal of phosphorus. The chemical and energy cost of the plant has been reduced by some 50% due to the introduction of biological nutrient removal. The BOD7-value of the treated wastewater is mainly less than 3 mg/l (always less than 5 mg/l). The content of total phosphorus in the treated wastewater is usually less than 0.3 mg/l (always less than 0.5 mg/l). The content of total nitrogen in the treated wastewater is mainly 8-12 mg/l. Reductions for BOD7 and total phosphorus over 95% as well as that for total nitrogen about 70% are achieved.