Wastewater

Wastewater treatment is one of the more-obvious applications for bioaugmentation products since the treatment processes involved rely on biological activity. For simplicity we can break down wastewater into three categories: municipal, industrial, and agricultural.

We have three products commonly used in wastewater treatment:

BZT® Waste Digester, BZT® Aquaculture, and OBT® Oil Degradation Treatment.

Which product, or products, used in treatment protocol design depends on the type of wastes involved, the system, and the goals of treatment. Your local United-Tech representative is trained to examine the project’s wastestream and treatment system’s parameters and couple that information with the client’s treatment goals. He or she will use that information to design the optimum treatment protocol.

Municipal wastewater treatment has its own goals. Often, time is of the essence and fast, thorough removal of organic and/or nutrient load is paramount due to the high volume of low load wastewater involved. Effluent quality usually takes precedent over other plant parameters.

BZT® Waste Digester is the ‘go to’ product for municipal wastewater treatment augmentation. Typically dissolved organic compounds that affect effluent Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) are the focus. BZT® Waste Digester’s microorganisms are extremely efficient in converting dissolved BOD into a stable biomass providing better settling characteristics with less biomass. This improves the performance of activated sludge systems, aeration basins, and clarifiers.

Performance of treatment systems and effluent improvement are not the only benefits of using BZT® Waste Digester. Treatment facilities also see benefits in the sludge wastestream. Sludge digester performance can be increased so they generate less sludge. At the same time, sludge processed has better de-watering characteristics, and less odors.
BZT® Aquaculture is also used in municipal wastewater situations. Here, the focus is on ammonia reduction. BZT® Aquaculture was formulated to scavenge nitrogenous compounds better than our other products. It readily assimilates ammonia nitrogen into cell mass or utilizes it in cellular biochemical processes. BZT® Aquaculture is also proficient in removing nitrates. Used alone, or in conjunction with other BZT®/OBT® products, it ensures the lowest possible ammonia and nitrate in treatment plant effluent.

Industrial Wastewater is unique because of the vast array of influent and effluent parameters as well as the goals of treatment. The list of industries BZT® and OBT® products have been used is extensive. Far too numerous to list here. If dissolved and particulate organic matter or odors are a concern, BZT® Waste Digester is used. For wastewater contaminated with ammonia or nitrates, BZT® Aquaculture may be used. While if complex organic compounds, petrochemicals, and alcohols are the concern, OBT® Oil Degradation Treatment is the product of choice. A select few industrial applications are as follows:

Rendering and Animal Processing Plants

These facilities are known for extremely high organic loads in their influent as well as offensive odors. These conditions often call for lagoon systems incorporating anaerobic and aerobic conditions. Anaerobic lagoons can be plagued with significant sludge accumulation and grease cap thickness. These two issues squeeze the lagoon’s water volume down exponentially. As the volume decreases, the rate of sludge and grease accumulation increases until the lagoon reaches a catastrophic failure. At this point, manual removal of solids becomes the only solution. BZT® Waste Digester use can help remedy the situation if conditions have not become too critical. It can break down the sludge, making it less dense and more available for digestion. At the same time, it can begin to break down and liquefy the grease cap, reducing it to a more-manageable thickness, or completely remove if a cover is used. Regular applications of BZT® Waste Digester can help prevent further accumulation of these solids.

Aerobic lagoons are plagued with solids accumulations and odors. Here BZT® Waste Digester increases the efficiency of the lagoon to help break down sludge and prevent it from accumulating. While not often a demand for plant operators, odor-reduction is a key benefit of BZT® Waste Digester application. This benefit is well received by facility neighbors and reduces complaints and fines.

Dairy Processing Plants

Dairy processing plants can exhibit very high levels of sugars and fats in the wastestreams. Like rendering facilities, they can be plagued with a buildup of sludge. High volumes of water used in the processing means effluent quality suffers due to short retention time. BZT® Waste Digester helps reduce effluent BOD, sludge accumulation, foaming, and odors.

Pulp and Paper Production

Pulp and Paper Production generates a wastestream that is heavily loaded with organic compounds that are difficult to break down. Sludge accumulation is a big concern, requiring very large treatment lagoons providing long retention times. BZT® Waste Digester, coupled with other nutrient sources can break down and digest these difficult sludge compounds preventing the need to drain, dredge, and dispose of the wastes. Another major issue with these facilities is odors. BZT® Waste Digester can significantly reduce the odors emanating from pulp and paper production wastewater facilities.

Petrochemical Processing Facilities

The petrochemical industry is plagued with several wastewater issues. First and foremost is the contamination of wastewater with various petrochemicals, either from processing or from runoff. Most often, the product of choice in petrochemical operations is OBT® Oil Degradation Treatment. This product is specifically formulated to break down and digest hydrocarbon and hydrocarbon-related compounds. OBT® Oil Degradation Treatment is used in remedial activities for soil and ground water and in wastewater situations. These include wastewater treatment plants and holding lagoons. Some petrochemical processing facilities also have issues with ammonia in their wastestreams. In these situations, BZT® Aquaculture may be used.

Other Unique Industrial Applications

Cruise Ships

Cruise ships offer a unique wastewater situation. Most often wastewater must be held until disposed at dockside facilities. Shipboard wastewater treatment systems are heavily loaded and often plagued with odor issues and filter fouling.

Mines and Landfills

Mining leachate and Landfill leachate can be contaminated with a multitude of organic compounds or nutrients but may offer an extremely difficult treatment scenario due to potential negative environmental conditions like pH, toxins, and temperature. In many situations modifications to these leachate systems can be made, allowing effective treatment protocols.

Swine and Poultry Waste Collection Systems

Agricultural wastewater is an often-overlooked industry. One example is swine or poultry barn washdown wastes. These types of waste streams are plagued with high organic and nutrient loading. However, very often the goals of treatment are different than with municipal or other industrial settings. Effluent quality may be less of a concern as the water and solids are often utilized as a value-added commodity and applied on surrounding agricultural property for soil amending and fertilizing value. Most often, the product of choice for agricultural wastewater is BZT® Waste Digester. Here the goal of treatment is to break down solids to point that the wastes are more fluid and thus more-easily pumped and transported. Being land-applied means that odor-reduction is a very critical benefit of BZT® Waste Digester treatment. In the barns, Treatment with BZT® Waste Digester can reduce odors, flies, and remove buildup of organic solids on surfaces, allowing more thoroughly cleaning during washdowns. BZT® also increases the nitrogen value of land-applied wastes as it reduces the amount of ammonia that is volatilized from the wastes during collection, holding, and dispersal.

Livestock Barn Surfaces

The accumulation of animal waste on surfaces in livestock barns and other holding facilities creates an unhealthy and odorous situation. These wastes attract flies and other nuisance insects. Because of this, barns are routinely cleaned. Often, the cleaning process used leaves behind a lot of organic matter that has soaked into porous surfaces of dirt, concrete, and wood. This includes floors and walls. Routine treatment with a solution of BZT® Waste Digester allows for the breakdown of this trapped organic matter providing a much cleaner and healthier environment.

Banana and other Fruit/Vegetable Processing

Other applications in the agriculture industry focus more on waste streams generated by various processing steps. For example, banana production utilizes a lot of water for latex weaning and rinsing of the fruits. The latex weaning tanks experience a significant buildup of sticky latex and other organic compounds. BZT® Waste Digester can help break down these compounds allowing greater water recycling and much less accumulation of latex on surfaces, clothing, tools, and most importantly the bananas.

Juice processing facilities can have an extremely high sugar content in their effluent. On-site wastewater treatment often generates large amounts of sludge. BZT® Waste Digester can help reduce sludge accumulation and subsequently reduce its accumulation.

Other fruit and vegetable processing plants like sugar beets, grapes/wineries, sugarcane, and corn/ethanol utilize BZT® products to help control effluent BOD, ammonia, or odor issues.