DIGESTIVORE?: Biological Sides Stream Ammonia Treatment Utilizing Membrane Thickening of Waste Activated Sludge

摘要

Discharging high levels of ammonia into receiving water streams is toxic to plant and animal life and causes many long term issues such as reduction of dissolved oxygen in water. Due to these concerns many wastewater treatment facilities are obligated to comply with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit limits for ammonia. If a plant recycles very high concentrations of ammonia in side streams of solids handing processes it can be difficult to remove the excess ammonia in the biological process making it problematic to comply with NPDES permit requirements. This paper describes the Digestivore? process which is biological side stream ammonia treatment utilizing membrane thickening of waste activated sludge (WAS). This process is a new development that functions as a sludge handling system and also provides ammonia treatment of side streams at wastewater treatment plants. Biological side stream ammonia treatment utilizing membrane thickening of waste WAS is a very versatile and robust technology that features a aerobic digestion process utilizing flat plate membranes for thickening WAS and biological treatment of dewatering equipment side streams from solids handling processes that produce high concentrations of ammonia most notably anaerobic digestion and autothermal thermophilic aerobic digestion (ATAD) systems.