Partial nitrification in MBBRs for mainstream deammonification with thin biofilms and alternating feed supply.

A new principle for mainstream nitrogen removal through nitritation followed by anammox was studied in a two-stage moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) configuration. The first stage was optimized for nitritation by using thin biofilms and a feed alternating between synthetic mainstream wastewater at 15°C and, for shorter periods, synthetic reject water at 30 °C. The exposure of the biofilm to reject water conditions aimed to improve the growth conditions for ammonia oxidizing bacteria, while inhibiting nitrite oxidizing bacteria. The biofilm thickness was maintained below 200 µm to ensure high exposure of the total biomass to the bulk reactor conditions. Nitritation was successfully achieved in the configuration, with a nitrite accumulation ratio above 75% during the majority of the study, and ammonia removal rates between 0.25 and 0.50 g NH4-N/L,d. The anoxic second stage, optimized for anammox, was fed with the effluent from the nitritation reactor, reaching nitrogen removal rates above 0.20 g TN/L,d.

Long term experience with the nutrient limited BAS process for treatment of forest industry wastewaters.

The nutrient limited biofilm-activated sludge (BAS) process was developed with the aim to ensure maximum biological treatment efficiency in combination with good process stability, low sludge production and minimum effluent concentration of nutrients. The first full scale nutrient limited BAS (NLBAS) processes were implemented at Södra Cell Värö and Stora Enso Hylte in 2002. Since then another three full scale installations have been built. The aim of this study was to investigate and summarise the long-term treatment results, process stability, sludge production and sludge characteristics for the five full scale NLBAS processes. It was of particular interest to compare the nutrient limited operating mode with regard to the different types of production and wastewater that the mills represent (kraft, TMP and newsprint, bleached CTMP). The study showed that after the initial start-up period, which varied from a couple of weeks to three to four months, all plants meet their respective discharge limits. The sludge production for the different plants varies between 0.07 and 0.15 kg TSS/kg COD and the sludge characteristics are with few exceptions excellent. In conclusion, the nutrient limited BAS process is suitable for both upgrades and new installations of biological treatment for different types of forest industry wastewaters.

Biological reduction of hexavalent chromium--a field study.

When ferrochromium is produced at Vargön Alloys AB (Vargön, Sweden), an offgas dust is generated as a byproduct. A leachate that contains hexavalent chromium (Cr6+) is formed when rainwater percolates through the dust deposit. In this study, Cr6+ in the leachate was reduced to trivalent chromium (Cr3+) by biological treatment in a biofilm process operated under anaerobic conditions. The reactor volume was 26 m3 and it was filled with 16 m3 plastic packing. Acetic acid was added as an electron donor. The Cr6+ was reduced from 10 to 20 mg/L to below 0.03 mg/L when the reactor was operated at a hydraulic retention time of 11 hours. The reduction activity in the process gradually decreased as the water temperature dropped below 10 degrees C.

Clinical disorders and pressure-pain threshold of the forearm and hand among automobile assembly line workers.

The prevalence of forearm and hand disorders was examined by questionnaire and clinical examination in 199 automobile assembly line workers and in 186 controls. The pressure-pain threshold, hand grip force and hand anthropometry were also studied. There was an increased prevalence of de Quervain's disease for male automobile assembly line workers, and of carpal tunnel syndrome in female workers. The prevalence of symptoms in the forearm and hand during the last 7 days were twice as high among automobile assembly line workers than controls for both men and women. The occurrence of symptoms in the last 7 days was associated with de Quervain's disease, carpal tunnel syndrome and sick-leave due to forearm or hand problems, and it also influenced activities of daily living. Hand grip strength and anthropometrics were not associated with findings in the clinical examination or the occurrence of symptoms in the last 7 days. Low pressure-pain threshold was not associated with findings in the clinical examination, except for reported occurrence of symptoms in the last 7 days for women. Pressure-pain threshold as an indicator of tissue damage is discussed.

Treatment of municipal wastewater in a hybrid process using a new suspended carrier with large surface area.

An activated sludge/biofilm hybrid process treating municipal wastewater was studied in pilot plant trials. A new type of suspended carrier, with large effective surface area, was employed in the process with the aim of enhancing nitrification. The pilot plant was operated for 1.5 years in five different configurations including pre-denitrification in all five and enhanced biological phosphorus removal in the final two. The wastewater temperature ranged between 11 degrees C and 20 degrees C, and the nominal dissolved oxygen (DO) level was 5-6 mg/L. The nitrification rate obtained on the new carrier within the hybrid stage was in the range of 0.9-1.2 g NH4-N/m2/d corresponding to a volumetric rate of 19-23 g NH4-N/m3/h (total nitrification including nitrification in the suspended solids). More than 80% of the total nitrification took place on the carrier (and the remainder in the suspended solids). The nitrification rate was shown to correlate with DO, decreasing when the DO was decreased. The results supported the idea of using the new carrier as a tool to upgrade plants not having nitrification today or improve nitrification in activated sludge processes not reaching necessary discharge levels. The large surface area present for nitrification makes it possible to obtain high nitrification rates within limited volumes. The possibility to keep the total suspended solid content low (< 3 g/L) and avoiding problems with the filament Microthrix parvicella, are other beneficial properties of the hybrid process.

A comparison of conventional activated sludge and low sludge production strategies for advanced treatment of kraft pulp mill effluent.

Parallel laboratory investigations were conducted to examine aspects of two distinct but related bioprocess strategies for low sludge production in the treatment of the same TCF kraft pulp mill effluent. The purpose of this article has been to compare the performance results from these two bench-scale trials with respect to nutrient demands, nutrient discharge, COD removal, and waste sludge characteristics. The LSP (Low Sludge Production) process can be used to significantly reduce sludge yield with excellent sludge characteristics. These sludge characteristics seemed to be related to elevated protozoan grazing pressures. The BAS (Biofilm-Activated Sludge) process achieves similar reduced sludge yields and sludge characteristics while at the same time significantly reducing the nutrient demands and discharge levels. For both LSP and BAS process optimization, the selector nutrient loading is critical to the overall process performance. Selector nutrient requirements are distinct from the overall process nutrient requirements.

Full scale implementation of the nutrient limited BAS process at Södra Cell Värö.

A combination of the suspended carrier biofilm process and the activated sludge process (biofilm-activated sludge--BAS) has been shown to be very successful for the treatment of different types of pulp and paper mill effluents. The robust biofilm pre-treatment in combination with activated sludge results in a stable, compact and highly efficient process. Recent findings have shown that nutrient limited operation of the biofilm process greatly improves the sludge characteristics in the following activated sludge stage, while minimising sludge production and effluent discharge of nutrients. The nutrient limited BAS process was implemented at full scale at the Södra Cell Värö kraft mill and taken into operation in July 2002. After start-up and optimisation over about 5 months, the process meets all effluent discharge limits. The removal of COD is close to 70% and the removal of EDTA greater than 90%. Typical effluent concentrations of suspended solids and nutrients during stable operations have been 20-30 mg/L TSS, 0.3-0.5 mg/L phosphorus and 3-5 mg/L nitrogen. The sludge production was 0.09 kgSS/kg COD removed and the sludge volume index was 50-100 mL/g.

Increasing the capacity for treatment of chemical plant wastewater by replacing existing suspended carrier media with Kaldnes Moving Bed media at a plant in Singapore.

The Kaldnes biomedia K1, which is used in the patented Kaldnes Moving Bed biofilm process, has been tested along with other types of biofilm carriers for biological pretreatment of a complex chemical industry wastewater. The main objective of the test was to find a biofilm carrier that could replace the existing suspended carrier media and at the same time increase the capacity of the existing roughing filter-activated sludge plant by 20% or more. At volumetric organic loads of 7.1 kg COD/m3/d the Kaldnes Moving Bed process achieved much higher removal rates and much lower effluent concentrations than roughing filters using other carriers. The Kaldnes roughing stage achieved more than 85% removal of organic carbon and more than 90% removal of BOD5 at the tested organic load, which was equivalent to a specific biofilm surface area load of 24 g COD/m2/d. Even for the combined roughing filter-activated sludge process, the Kaldnes carriers outperformed the other carriers, with 98% removal of organic carbon and 99.6% removal of BOD5. The Kaldnes train final effluent concentrations were only 22 mg FOC/L and 7 mg BOD5/L. Based on the successful pilot testing, the full-scale plant was upgraded with Kaldnes Moving Bed roughing filters. During normal operation the upgraded plant has easily met the discharge limits of 100 mg COD/L and 50 mg SS/L. For the month of September 2002, with organic loads between 100 and 115% of the design load for the second half of the month, average effluent concentrations were as low as 9 mg FOC/L, 51 mg COD/L and 12 mg SS/L.

Anaerobic growth of microorganisms with chlorate as an electron acceptor.

The ability of microorganisms to use chlorate (ClO(3)) as an electron acceptor for respiration under anaerobic conditions was studied in batch and continuous tests. Complex microbial communities were cultivated anaerobically in defined media containing chlorate, all essential minerals, and acetate as the sole energy and carbon source. It was shown that chlorate was reduced to chloride, while acetate was oxidized to carbon dioxide and water and used as the carbon source for synthesis of new biomass. A biomass yield of 1.9 to 3.8 g of volatile suspended solids per equivalent of available electrons was obtained, showing that anaerobic growth with chlorate as an electron acceptor gives a high energy yield. This indicates that microbial reduction of chlorate to chloride in anaerobic systems is coupled with electron transport phosphorylation.