Municipal

Publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) and other domestic wastewater treatment systems can be significant point sources of harmful nutrients in aquatic environments, and state environmental regulatory agencies are increasingly developing new or more stringent standards limiting nitrogen and phosphorus discharges to protect water quality. Biological treatment to remove nitrogen and phosphorus is often more cost-effective than physical or chemical treatment technologies, with the added benefit of converting the contaminants into harmless compounds.

POTWs sometimes experience operational difficulties with activated sludge systems, such as foaming, bulking, or poor settling. In these situations, a low food-to-microorganism ratio (F/M) may be promoting the proliferation of undesirable filamentous bacteria. BOD augmentation to increase the F/M ratio can resolve or prevent many such operational problems, is also useful for sustaining biomass during seasonal periods of low flows or loadings, and for establishing the biomass during start-up of new or upgraded biological treatment systems.

How EOSi Can Help

EOSi’s MicroC® premium carbon sources enable safe and cost-effective biological removal of nitrogen and phosphorus, and can help treatment plants prevent or resolve operational challenges with activated sludge systems during plant startups or during events of inadequate food to microorganism ratio. The well-defined kinetic and yield characteristics of MicroC® also make it ideal for BOD augmentation.

From assessment, trouble shooting, automation, and optimization, EOSi’s goal is to maximize nitrogen and phosphorus removal from existing biological treatment systems, preferably through operational improvements instead of capital investments. If wastewater plants need to install new or upgraded biological treatment systems, EOSi can perform bench-scale treatability studies, modeling and simulations, and equipment selection and procurement for the carbon source supplementation program. EOSi also provides long-term technical support, monitoring, and ongoing optimization services delivered in one of our Objective Based Programs to our MicroC® customers.