Performances of three R-AN-D-N wastewater treatment plants in the Czech Republic

2004 ◽  
Vol 50 (7) ◽  
pp. 249-255 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Bejvl ◽  
P. Matuška ◽  
J. Stara ◽  
P. Chudoba

The evolution of Czech standards requires higher efficiency of nutrient removal from municipal wastewaters. At the beginning of the last decade of 20th century, a new activated sludge configuration called R-AN-D-N process has been described, successfully tested and now largely used at several wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) in the Czech republic. The main feature of the R-AN-D-N process is the introduction of a regeneration zone in sludge recycle, which enables to increase sludge age in the system without any substantial increase in WWTP volume. Performances of three Czech large WWTP with R-AN-D-N configuration have been monitored and compared within a period of one and a half years. The results confirmed excellent nutrient removal efficiency for wastewaters with different proportion between sewage and industrial effluents. Two of three monitored WWTP received wastewaters from breweries (Budweiser and Pilsner Urquell). The settleability of activated sludge from all three WWTP was correct, with SVI values usually ranging from 50 to 150 ml/g. Monitoring of sludge composition indicated proliferation of several filamentous bacteria, particularly types 0581, 0092 and M. parvicella. No severe bulking events were observed. Finally, the operational costs expressed in CZK (Czech crown: 1CZK = €0.0322) per cubic metre of treated sewage or per capita amounts respectively from 2.24 to 6.52, and from 285 to 342.

2006 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 237-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.R. Thomsen ◽  
C. Kragelund ◽  
P.H. Nielsen

Microcolony-forming bacteria closely related to the genus Aquaspirillum in the Betaproteobacteria were recently observed to be abundant in many nutrient removal wastewater treatment plants. The developed oligonucleotide probe, Aqs997, however, occasionally also targeted some filamentous bacteria in activated sludge samples when fluorescence in situ hybridization was performed. In this study, the identity, abundance, and ecophysiology of these Aqs997-positive filamentous bacteria were studied in detail. Most of the Aqs997-positive filamentous bacteria could morphologically be identified as either Eikelboom Type 1701, Type 0041/0675 or possibly Type 1851, all characterized by epiphytic growth. They were found in almost all 21 wastewater treatment plants investigated. Two morphotypes were found. Type A filaments, which seemed to be the same genotype as the microcolony-forming bacteria targeted by probe Aqs997.Type B filaments also hybridized with probe GNS941, specific for the Chloroflexi phylum, so the true identity remains unclear. Aqs997-positive filaments usually stained Gram-negative, but Gram-positive filaments were also found, stressing the difficulties in identifying bacteria from morphology and simple staining results. Studies on the ecophysiology by microautoradiography showed that Aqs997-positive filamentous bacteria did not consume acetate and glucose, while some took up butyrate, mannose, and certain amino acids. Most likely, some Aqs997-positive filamentous bacteria were able to perform full denitrification such as the Aqs997-positive microcolony-forming bacteria, and some were able to store polyhydroxyalkanoates under anaerobic conditions, potentially being glycogen accumulating organisms.


Author(s):  
Hisashi Satoh ◽  
Yukari Kashimoto ◽  
Naoki Takahashi ◽  
Takashi Tsujimura

A deep learning-based two-label classifier 1 recognized a 20% morphological change in the activated flocs. Classifier-2 quantitatively recognized an abundance of filamentous bacteria in activated flocs.


Author(s):  
Hana Mlejnkova ◽  
Katerina Sovova ◽  
Petra Vasickova ◽  
Vera Ocenaskova ◽  
Lucie Jasikova ◽  
...  

The virus SARS-CoV-2, which has caused the recent COVID-19 pandemic, may be present in the stools of COVID-19 patients. Therefore, we aimed to detect SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater for surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 in the population. Samples of untreated wastewater were collected from 33 wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) of different sizes within the Czech Republic. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was concentrated from wastewater and viral RNA was determined using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in 11.6% of samples and more than 27.3% of WWTPs; in some of them, SARS-CoV-2 was detected repeatedly. Our preliminary results indicate that an epidemiology approach that focuses on the determination of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater could be suitable for SARS-CoV-2 surveillance in the population.


2013 ◽  
Vol 67 (11) ◽  
pp. 2519-2526 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. T. Mielczarek ◽  
A. M. Saunders ◽  
P. Larsen ◽  
M. Albertsen ◽  
M. Stevenson ◽  
...  

Since 2006 more than 50 Danish full-scale wastewater treatment plants with nutrient removal have been investigated in a project called ‘The Microbial Database for Danish Activated Sludge Wastewater Treatment Plants with Nutrient Removal (MiDas-DK)’. Comprehensive sets of samples have been collected, analyzed and associated with extensive operational data from the plants. The community composition was analyzed by quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) supported by 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing and deep metagenomics. MiDas-DK has been a powerful tool to study the complex activated sludge ecosystems, and, besides many scientific articles on fundamental issues on mixed communities encompassing nitrifiers, denitrifiers, bacteria involved in P-removal, hydrolysis, fermentation, and foaming, the project has provided results that can be used to optimize the operation of full-scale plants and carry out trouble-shooting. A core microbial community has been defined comprising the majority of microorganisms present in the plants. Time series have been established, providing an overview of temporal variations in the different plants. Interestingly, although most microorganisms were present in all plants, there seemed to be plant-specific factors that controlled the population composition thereby keeping it unique in each plant over time. Statistical analyses of FISH and operational data revealed some correlations, but less than expected. MiDas-DK (www.midasdk.dk) will continue over the next years and we hope the approach can inspire others to make similar projects in other parts of the world to get a more comprehensive understanding of microbial communities in wastewater engineering.


2011 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 575-595 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giorgio Mannina ◽  
Alida Cosenza ◽  
Peter A. Vanrolleghem ◽  
Gaspare Viviani

Activated sludge models can be very useful for designing and managing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, as with every model, they need to be calibrated for correct and reliable application. Activated sludge model calibration is still a crucial point that needs appropriate guidance. Indeed, although calibration protocols have been developed, the model calibration still represents the main bottleneck to modelling. This paper presents a procedure for the calibration of an activated sludge model based on a comprehensive sensitivity analysis and a novel step-wise Monte Carlo-based calibration of the subset of influential parameters. In the proposed procedure the complex calibration issue is tackled both by making a prior screening of the most influential model parameters and by simplifying the problem of finding the optimal parameter set by splitting the estimation task into steps. The key point of the proposed step-wise procedure is that calibration is undertaken for sub-groups of variables instead of solving a complex multi-objective function. Moreover, even with this step-wise approach parameter identifiability issues may occur, but this is dealt with by using the general likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) method, that so far has rarely been used in the field of wastewater modelling. An example from a real case study illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. Particularly, a model was built for the simulation of the nutrient removal in a Bardenpho scheme plant. The model was successfully and efficiently calibrated to a large WWTP in Sicily.


2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 35-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Li ◽  
P. Bishop

Redox potential (ORP) regulation of nutrient removal in aeration tanks was tested for one year in three activated sludge wastewater treatment plants in Cincinnati, OH. The experiment results show a good relationship between ORP values and nutrient removal. Macro-biodegradation and sorption of substrate by activated sludge can significantly increase wastewater ORP, indicating the improvement of redox status of the bulk liquor. DO higher than 1.0 mg/L is necessary for good biodegradation and the improvement of liquid redox status. ORP values at higher temperatures (Twater=20–26°C) were lower than ORP values at lower temperatures (Twater=14–19°C), caused by the lower oxygen saturation capacity in wastewater and the more rapid oxygen consumption by microorganism under warmer conditions. Nitrification occurred at higher ORP values (380 mV) than did organic substrate oxidation (250mV). This verifies that different metabolic processes dominate in different ORP ranges. The pilot-scale experiment results demonstrate that the wastewater ORP values continued to increase throughout the whole 6-hour cycle when the influent COD was higher than 1,000 mg/L. For influent with low COD (40–120 mg/L), the wastewater ORP values did not increase in the second 3 hours of the cycle, during which time the microbial-biodegradation within the activated sludge floc dominated. High DO concentrations (6–8 mg/L) did not help improve the redox status. In fully-aerated wastewater, oxygen deeply penetrated into the activated sludge flocs, and microorganisms biodegraded the substrates within the flocs. Endogenous metabolism predominated.


2002 ◽  
Vol 46 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 99-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Snaidr ◽  
C. Beimfohr ◽  
C. Levantesi ◽  
S. Rossetti ◽  
J. van der Waarde ◽  
...  

The diversity of filamentous bacteria present in industrial wastewater treatment plants was analysed by a combination of classical and molecular-biological approaches. Many unknown filamentous bacteria were observed in about 80 screened activated sludge samples from different industries with sometimes severe bulking sludge problems. A special focus was paid to filaments which resembled “Nostocoida limicola”, a filamentous bacterium which was found to be present in many WWTPs. These filamentous bacteria are hardly cultivable and only one strain was obtained and maintained in co-culture with a yeast. The 16S rRNA sequences of several other “Nostocoida limicola”-like filamentous bacteria from different sludge samples were obtained by micromanipulation and different molecular-biological methods. The sequences were phylogenetically analyzed and specific molecular probes were developed and applied. The results clearly demonstrate that “Nostocoida limicola”-like filaments from industrial WWTPs are different from all other “Nostocoida limicola” types investigated so far. Our strains are affiliated to the alpha-subclass of Proteobacteria.


2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (5) ◽  
pp. 1074-1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kris De Gussem ◽  
Alessio Fenu ◽  
Tom Wambecq ◽  
Marjoleine Weemaes

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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 67-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Kuśnierz ◽  
Paweł Wiercik

Abstract The analysis of particle size in suspensions carried out with use of the laser diffraction method enables us to obtain not only information about the size of particles, but also about their properties, shape and spatial structure, determined basing on fractal dimension. The fractal dimension permits the evaluation of the interior of aggregates, at the same time showing the degree of complexity of the matter. In literature, much attention is paid to the evaluation of the fractal dimension of flocs in activated sludge, in the aspect of control of single processes, i.e. sedimentation, dehydration, coagulation or flocculation. However, results of research concerning the size of particles and the structure of suspensions existing in raw and treated sewage are still lacking. The study presents optical fractal dimensions D3 and particle size distributions measured with use of laser granulometer in raw and treated sewage and activated sludge collected from six mechanical-biological wastewater treatment plants located in the Lower Silesian region. The obtained test results demonstrate that wastewater treatment plants that use both sequencing batch reactors and continuous flow reactors are more efficient at capturing suspension particles of a size up to 30 μm and are characterized by an increased removal of particles of a size ranging from 30 μm to 550 μm to the outflow. Additionally, in the case of samples of treated sewage and activated sludge collected at the same location, at short intervals, similar particle distributions were observed. As far as the analysis of fractal dimensions is concerned, particles contained in the raw sewage suspension were characterized by the lowest values of the fractal dimension (median equals 1.89), while the highest values occurred in particles of activated sludge (median equals 2.18). This proves that the spatial structure of suspension particles contained in raw sewage was similar to a linear structure, with a large amount of open spaces, while the structure of particles contained in the activated sludge suspension was significantly more complex in the spatial aspect.


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