Marjoleine Weemaes

Evaluation of current wet sludge disintegration techniques.

The handling and processing of excess biomass produced in wastewater treatment plants is an important aspect of wastewaster treatment. Current approaches to sludge treatment include the wet destruction of the biosolids. This approach does not require preceding dewatering operations and enhances biodegradability of the sludge particles. However, high costs, corrosion problems and restricted knowledge still prevent wet sludge disintegration from realising its understanding of potential as an industrial process. This paper reviews the current state of the art and compares several wet sludge disintegration techniques, including mechanical, chemical, thermochemical, biological and oxidative treatments.

Full-scale phosphorus recovery from digested wastewater sludge in Belgium – part II: economic opportunities and risks

One of the options to recycle phosphorus (P) in the wastewater sector is to recover it as struvite crystals from digested sludge. Measurements on a full-scale demonstration plant in Leuven, Belgium, yielded a first indication of the profitability of struvite recovery, in function of different variables such as incoming PO(4)(3-) concentration, MgCl₂dosing, improved dewaterability, etc. An uncertainty and sensitivity analysis was carried out. Although possible improvement in sludge dewaterability when recovering struvite from digested sludge has a positive economic amortization effect, it is at the same time the largest source of financial risk. A theoretical exercise showed that for struvite recovery from centrate, uncertainty would be lower, and the largest sensitivity would be attributed to ingoing PO(4)(3-) concentration. Although struvite recovery from digested sludge is riskier, it is an investment with potentially a higher return than investment in struvite recovery from centrate. The article provides information for possible financial incentive schemes to support P-recovery.

Full-scale phosphorus recovery from digested waste water sludge in Belgium – part I: technical achievements and challenges

To date, phosphorus recovery as struvite in wastewater treatment plants has been mainly implemented on water phases resulting from dewatering processes of the sludge line. However, it is possible to recover struvite directly from sludge phases. Besides minimising the return loads of phosphorus from the sludge line to the water line, placing such a process within the sludge line is claimed to offer advantages such as a higher recovery potential, enhanced dewaterability of the treated sludge, and reduced speed of scaling in pipes and dewatering devices. In the wastewater treatment plant at Leuven (Belgium), a full-scale struvite recovery process from digested sludge has been tested for 1 year. Several monitoring campaigns and experiments provided indications of the efficiency of the process for recovery. The load of phosphorus from the sludge line returning to the water line as centrate accounted for 15% of the P-load of the plant in the reference situation. Data indicated that the process divides this phosphorus load by two. An improved dewaterability of 1.5% of dry solids content was achieved, provided a proper tuning of the installation. Quality analyses showed that the formed struvite was quite pure.

Evaluating the application of Microbacterium sp. strain BR1 for the removal of sulfamethoxazole in full-scale membrane bioreactors

Microbacterium sp. strain BR1 is a bacterial strain that recently received attention for its capability to mineralize sulfamethoxazole (SMX) and other sulfonamides. In this study, the survival of Microbacterium sp. in municipal sludge waters was tested in batch experiments to explore optimal process conditions. Inoculation of Microbacterium sp. was subsequently performed in a pilot membrane bioreactor (MBR) operated in two configurations: treating full-scale MBR permeate (post-treatment) and treating raw municipal wastewater. SMX removal by Microbacterium sp. could not be proved in any of the configurations, except for SMX concentrations far higher than the ones normally found in municipal wastewater. By use of molecular tools (fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis) a low capability to survive in activated sludge systems was assessed. After inoculation, Microbacterium sp. was reduced to a small fraction of the viable biomass. The observed growth rate appeared to be many times lower than the one of typical activated sludge micro-organisms. Possibilities of application in full-scale municipal wastewater treatment are scarce.

Modelling real-time control of WWTP influent flow under data scarcity

In order to comply with effluent standards, wastewater operators need to avoid hydraulic overloading of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), as this can result in the washout of activated sludge from secondary settling tanks. Hydraulic overloading can occur in a systematic way, for instance when sewer network connections are extended without increasing the WWTPs capacity accordingly. This study demonstrates the use of rule-based real-time control (RTC) to reduce the load to the WWTP while restricting the overall overflow volume of the sewer system to a minimum. Further, it shows the added value of RTC despite the limited availability of monitoring data and information on the catchment through a parsimonious simulation approach, using relocation of spatial system boundaries and creating required input data through reverse modelling. Focus was hereby on the accurate modelling of pump hydraulics and control. Finally, two different methods of global sensitivity analysis were employed to verify the influence of parameters of both the model and the implemented control algorithm. Both methods show the importance of good knowledge of the system properties, but that monitoring errors play a minor role.

Energy saving on wastewater treatment plants through improved online control: case study wastewater treatment plant Antwerp-South

This work provides a case study on how activated sludge modelling and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can help to optimize the energy consumption of a treatment plant that is already equipped with an advanced control based on online nutrient measurements. Currently, aeration basins on wastewater treatment plant Antwerp-South are operated sequentially while flow direction and point of inflow and outflow vary as a function of time. Activated sludge modelling shows that switching from the existing alternating flow based control to a simultaneous parallel feeding of all aeration tanks saves 1.3% energy. CFD calculations also illustrate that the water velocity is still sufficient if some impellers in the aeration basins are shutdown. The simulations of the Activated Sludge Model No. 2d indicate that the coupling of the aeration control with the impeller control, and automatically switching off some impellers when the aeration is inactive, can save 2.2 to 3.3% of energy without affecting the nutrient removal efficiency. On the other hand, all impellers are needed when the aeration is active to distribute the oxygen.

Global sensitivity analysis of an in-sewer process model for the study of sulfide-induced corrosion of concrete.

The presence of high concentrations of hydrogen sulfide in the sewer system can result in corrosion of the concrete sewer pipes. The formation and fate of hydrogen sulfide in the sewer system is governed by a complex system of biological, chemical and physical processes. Therefore, mechanistic models have been developed to describe the underlying processes. In this work, global sensitivity analysis was applied to an in-sewer process model (aqua3S) to determine the most important model input factors with regard to sulfide formation in rising mains and the concrete corrosion rate downstream of a rising main. The results of the sensitivity analysis revealed the most influential model parameters, but also the importance of the characteristics of the organic matter, the alkalinity of the concrete and the movement of the sewer gas phase.

Advanced biological activated carbon filter for removing pharmaceutically active compounds from treated wastewater

Through their release of effluents, conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) represent a major pollution point sources for pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) in water bodies. The combination of a biological activated carbon (BAC) filter coupled with an ultrafiltration (UF) unit was evaluated as an advanced treatment for PhACs removal at pilot scale. The BAC-UF pilot plant was monitored for one year. The biological activity of the biofilm that developed on the granular activated carbon (GAC) particles and the contribution of this biofilm to the overall removal of PhACs were evaluated. Two different phases were observed during the long-term monitoring of PhACs removal. During the first 9200 bed volumes (BV; i.e., before GAC saturation), 89, 78, 83 and 79% of beta-blockers, psychiatric drugs, antibiotics and a mix of other therapeutic groups were removed, respectively. The second phase was characterized by deterioration of the overall performances during the period between 9200 and 13,800 BV. To quantify the respective contribution of adsorption and biodegradation, a lab-scale setup was operated for four months and highlighted the essential role played by GAC in biofiltration units. Physical adsorption was indeed the main removal mechanism. Nevertheless, a significant contribution due to biological activity was detected for some PhACs. The biofilm contributed to the removal of 22, 25, 30, 32 and 35% of ciprofloxacin, bezafibrate, ofloxacin, azithromycin and sulfamethoxazole, respectively.

Semi-automated buildup and calibration of conceptual sewer models

Building conceptual sewer models can be a time-consuming task, especially for large or complex models or models that require input data that might be difficult/tedious to obtain manually.This paper presents a semi-automated procedure for the buildup and calibration of one conceptual model that requires detailed input data such as throttle dimensions, pump curves or water level-storage relations. The procedure uses a hydrodynamic model as basis for sewer network data to create the model layout. A standardised series of composite rainfall events is applied to the hydrodynamic model in order to obtain the necessary reference data for the automated calibration of the conceptual model.Both model buildup and calibration are illustrated by means of a case study. Comparison of results of the hydrodynamic and conceptual model for a 1 year long-term series shows that the automated buildup and calibration can lead to an accurate conceptual model in short time. An automated buildup and calibration routine for conceptual sewer models is proposed.Hydrodynamic models are used as a basis for the model buildup.The routine can handle complex data such as required for modelling of backwater at throttle structures.The automatically built and calibrated model delivers highly accurate results.

Evaluation of the applicability of the aquatic ascomycete Phoma sp. UHH 5-1-03 for the removal of pharmaceutically active compounds from municipal wastewaters using membrane bioreactors

Membrane bioreactors (MBRs) augmented with terrestrial white‐rot basidiomycetes have already been tested for the removal of pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) from wastewaters. Within the present study, an aquatic ascomycete (Phoma sp.) was initially demonstrated to efficiently remove several PhACs at their real environmental trace concentrations from nonsterile municipal wastewater on a laboratory scale. Then, a pilot MBR was bioaugmented with Phoma sp. and successively operated in two configurations (first treating full‐scale MBR effluent as a posttreatment, and then treating raw municipal wastewater). Treatment of influent wastewater by the Phoma‐bioaugmented pilot MBR was more efficient than influent treatment by a concomitantly operated full‐scale MBR lacking Phoma sp and posttreatment of full‐scale MBR permeate using the pilot MBR. A stable removal of the PhACs carbamazepine (CBZ) and diclofenac (DF) (39 and 34% on average, respectively) could be achieved throughout the pilot MBR influent treatment period of 51 days, without the need for additional nutrient supplementation (full‐scale MBR: on average, 15% DF but no CBZ removed during 108 days). The long‐term presence of Phoma sp. in the pilot MBR could be demonstrated using fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis, but still open questions regarding its long‐term activity maintenance remain to be answered.