Aerobic biological treatment of grease from urban wastewater treatment plants

Biological grease treatment is rapidly expanding in France, with about sixty plants recorded in 1998. They are designed at a volumetric loading of 2.5 kg COD/m3 of reactor per day. Several sites have been selected for their representativity and studied. Prior to detailed monitoring over a long period, preliminary investigations provided some information on the operation of these reactors. They showed that most of them are not optimized (low removal efficiency), but have limited operational constraints given their low load. This study enabled us to assess the quantity actually skimmed from the surface of the aerated grease separator in relation to the lipids in raw sewage, and to define the precautions to be taken for sampling and analysis of grease, before any data interpretation. A detailed measurement series was then implemented. It shows the considerable value of this process for the reduction of lipids and highlights the main operational parameters in order to obtain high performance while keeping low operating constraints.