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A Novel Bioreactor for High Density Cultivation of Diverse Microbial Communities

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Published on: December 25, 2015

Converting rectangular and circular primary tanks into the AAA biologically enhanced clarification settler.

Bernhard Wett¹, Peter Aichinger¹, Sudhir Murthy²

¹ARAconsult, Innsbruck, Austria.

Water Environment Research : a Research Publication of the Water Environment Federation

|April 22, 2024

Summary

The Triple A settler, an advanced primary treatment, enhances water resource recovery facility capacity by ~50% through biosorption, bioflocculation, and assimilation. This retrofittable technology improves organic load removal and nutrient reduction.

Keywords:

A‐stage Triple A biosorption carbon redirection contact stabilization floc filtration

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Area of Science:

Environmental Engineering
Wastewater Treatment Technologies

Background:

Existing water resource recovery facilities face challenges accommodating a 50% load increase within current infrastructure.
Process intensification via upstream organic load redirection to digesters is an efficient solution.

Purpose of the Study:

To introduce and evaluate the "activated primary treatment" Triple A settler for enhanced wastewater treatment.
To demonstrate the Triple A settler's effectiveness in increasing plant capacity and improving effluent quality.

Main Methods:

The Triple A settler utilizes alternating activated adsorption, biosorption, bioflocculation, and assimilation.
It can be retrofitted into existing primary tanks (rectangular or circular) with depths of 2.5-5.0 m.
The process operates at a hydraulic retention time of 2 hours and sludge retention time of 0.5 days.

Main Results:

Triple A pretreatment achieves significantly higher removal efficiencies: ~60% COD, ~25% N, and ~33% P.
Compared to conventional primary settling (33% COD, 9% N, 11% P), Triple A offers superior performance.
The technology is scalable, applicable from 0.1 to 10 mgd dry-weather flow rates.

Conclusions:

The Triple A settler is a hybrid advanced primary treatment, comparable to A-stage and contact stabilization.
It effectively removes COD, TSS, Phosphorus (P), and Nitrogen (N) without negatively impacting enhanced biological phosphorus removal.
Key benefits include energy efficiency, capacity increase, and operational advantages for water resource recovery facilities.