 |
Welcome to Ask Tom!, a monthly column by our resident water treatment guru, Tom Keenan of
National Environmental Services Agency (NESA). Tom addresses the issues that bug you the most. And Tom knows!! With 35 years experience in providing environmental support services to public and private sector clients on a wide range of environmental issues. Tom has also co-authored and presented training courses on wastewater treatment systems.
For past
articles visit the Ask Tom!
Archive. |
Bio-Activation in Wastewater and
Collection Systems
Guest article by Scott Windham of Natural Resource Protection Inc.
Printer friendly PDF
Domestic sewage has been a problem
since long before the development of the modern wastewater
collection and treatment systems that are taken for granted in the
developed world of today. The earliest cities of ancient Greece
and Rome established the need for the proper disposal of its
domestic wastewater, not only for the odor problem but they
recognized the health hazard present in "foul smelling bodily
fluids" as it related to "the sicknesses" that they
observed when the waste water contaminated food and drinking water
wells. Their solution was collection and relocation, usually to a
nearby stream or river which would carry the wastewater away.
 Until
the discovery of microorganisms and their relationship to disease
there was virtually no sewerage treatment methods employed for the
disposal of the domestic wastewater from any major city other than
collection and relocation. It took a major epidemic in London in
the eighteenth century that was traced to the sewage collection
system to be the stimulus for the development of the treatment
systems that we employee today.
The technology of sewage treatment
has evolved very slowly over the last hundred years and even
though most engineers and wastewater experts are aware of the
biological nature of the product the major efforts to increase the
efficiency of the treatment system and to eliminate odors, fats,
greases, oils and to reduce the volume of sludge have centered
around physical design and not biological improvement.
Natural Resource Protection Inc. (NRP)
studied the total biological treatment problem with regard to
reducing odor, fats, grease, oil and the lowering of total sludge
volume through enhancing the biological activity of the indigenous
microorganisms. This resulted in the development of an
enzyme-based product called BioKat.
|
|
BioKat is a complex formulation
that increases the cellular metabolism of the bacterial
microorganisms present in the wastewater. It functions by
supplying the missing or deficient intercellular micro enzymes
that are lacking in the nutrient constituent of the wastewater. The nutrients present in the
wastewater are derived from the end product of the digestive
process of the people using the wastewater system. These nutrients
(wastes) have already gone through a biological digestive
treatment in the human body whereby the body has extracted the
nutrients that were subject to the human digestive tract and are
deficient in many biochemical components.
Many of these components are amino
acids, proteins, vitamins and enzymes. Thus the wastewater stream
can be considered to be deficient or lacking in many of the
nutrients and micro nutrients that would be required by many
beneficial microorganism that we rely on to further process
(digest ) the waste nutrients.
|
|
NRP's
"down
the manhole"
dosing unit |
The inefficiency of the beneficial
microorganisms due to this lack of essential balance of
micronutrients can lead to an imbalance in the micro flora and
lead to increases in odor production, undigested FOG (fats, grease
and oil) , and higher solids in the wastewater stream leading to
higher sludge volume.
BioKat is a product that when added
to the wastewater will supply many of the missing micronutrients
and intracellular enzymes that are required for the microorganisms
to function at their highest metabolic rate.
Achieving the highest metabolic
rate possible within the collection system and plant assures that
the plant efficiency is operating at its maximum throughput and
with the highest degree of nutrient conversion (digestion). This
increase in nutrient consumption by its very nature reduces the
solids loading, decreases the FOG and reduces the odor. The
metabolic process of aerobic microorganisms results in three major
events,
- Consumption of nutrients
- Production of carbon dioxide gas
and
- Generation of energy (heat).
 There
is also, as the end result of this process, an increase in the
number of microorganisms (biomass increase) as the microorganisms
go through log phase growth and reproduction. The theoretical
conversion of nutrients to new biomass in a typical bacterial life
cycle is 1/3 goes to CO2 production, 1/3 goes to energy production
and the remaining 1/3 is new biomass. From this it is evident that
if the microorganisms can be activated to achieve their full
metabolic rate then there will be a greater consumption of
nutrients with a corresponding reduction in solids volume.
Additionally, as the beneficial microorganisms out compete the
less desirable microorganisms for the available nutrients the
ability of these other microorganisms to thrive is diminished thus
reducing there ability to create the problems of odor and H2S gas
and corrosive acids.
Activation of the indigenous
bacterial flora by the use of BioKat allows the WWTP to achieve
its optimal level of efficiency. This many reduce energy costs,
chemical additive costs and reduce maintenance problems while
postponing the need for capital expansion. BioKat Cellular
Activator is an all natural non-toxic product that acts at the
biological level of the WWTP and improves efficiency of the
biological process and improves overall water quality of the
plant.
About our author:
For more information contact our
author at:
Mr. Scott Windham
Natural Resource Protection Inc.
2948 NW 60th St.
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl 33309
Telephone: 954-970-7773 or toll free 888-633-3444
Fax: 954-970-7778
Email: swindham@nrp-inc.com
Web site: http://www.nrp-inc.com/
Help others by posting
your comments, suggestions and experiences with water or
wastewater treatment or any other concerns you may have on
our On-Line Help Forum. For
past Ask Tom! Articles, visit the Ask Tom!
Archive.
Guest articles for the
Ask Tom! Column are always welcome, for more information please
contact Tom Keenan directly at his email address: info@nesa.ie
|
