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Advanced Filtration Dynamic Membrane Technology

Advanced Filtration Dynamic Membrane Technology

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Advanced Filtration Dynamic Membrane Technology

CORNCOB advanced filtration dynamic membrane technology can convert nearly any wastewater stream into clean reusable water in a small footprint, Decentralized Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS). Compared to innovative DEWATS biological processes, such as FMBR, CORNCOB is ideally suited for wastewater streams that are less suitable for biological treatment such as landfill leachate.

Case Study: CORNCOB Landfill Leachate Solution

A medium size municipal landfill in Monroe County, Wisconsin faced the threat of shutdown if it could not solve its growing leachate problem. It’s average daily leachate production was 10,000 gallons per day which was hauled and disposed of offsite 365 days per year.

The Corncob solution provided an onsite landfill leachate treatment & recovery system that recovered clean NPDES permittable water and eliminated the need for offsite hauling and disposal.

Gail Frie, Solid Waste Manager, Monroe County Landfill, Wisconsin

Met/exceeded all landfill requirements

  • Flexible onsite solution
  • Environmentally safe
  • Cost effective
  • Does not disrupt current operation
  • Expandable

Benefits

  • $180,000+ in annual savings
  • 30% less capital, 50% less energy, 80% smaller footprint as compared to alternative solutions
  • 67% of leachate is converted into clean, NPDES permittable water
  • Ensured a resilient & sustainable operation

Example applications include but are not limited to:

  • Agricultural processes
  • Breweries & wineries
  • Campgrounds
  • Dairy processing
  • Fiber Processing
  • Food cleaning processes
  • Frack Flowback
  • Industrial Laundry
  • Landfill Leachate
  • Meat & poultry processes
  • Municipal Sewage
  • Shrimp Farms
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4 keys to reducing costs and improving results with wastewater lagoons

4 keys to reducing costs and improving results with wastewater lagoons

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4 Keys to Reducing Costs and Improving Results with Wastewater Lagoons

microbes

1. Encourage Naturally Forming Microbes

Naturally forming microbes can remove ammonia, facilitate biosolids settling, reduce TSS levels in effluent, consume biosolids, and minimize biosolids buildup in lagoon basins. (See Case Study: Wastewater municipality saves $35 million in capital with a one-step nitrification process).

dna analysis

2. Measure the Biological Process

Microbe Detectives’ DNA analysis services allow you to see, measure, and control all the microbes that remove and recover Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N), and Phosphorus (P) from waste streams, digest organic waste, and produce clean renewable resources.

biostimulant

3. Add Biostimulants

Biostimulants can facilitate significant savings in biosolids disposal costs by enhancing natural biological processes. (See Case Study – Wastewater municipality saves $6 million in lagoon biosolids costs with a $0.35 million investment in biostimulants in one year).

mixing aeration

4. Optimize Mixing & Aeration

Wastewater lagoons often do not have sufficient mixing or aeration to achieve optimal results. Mega bubble mixing can provide an effective mixing and aeration solution at low cost, enabling naturally forming microbes to produce superior results. (See Example Application – mega bubble mixing in an anaerobic zone of a wastewater treatment process)

Wastewater Lagoon Problems Worth Solving

  • Sub-optimal Ammonia Removal
  • Elevated TSS levels in Lagoon Effluent
  • Increasing Biosolids Dredging and Disposal Costs
  • Decreasing Lagoon Processing Capacity
  • Liability Exposure
  • Environmental Contamination Risks of Offsite Solids Disposal

Independent Expert Assessment

WaterTrust independent pilot evaluations are offered as a turnkey solution including ROI assessment, pilot design, supply of solution components, oversight and analysis.

Pilot Lagoon Evaluaton Timeline

  • Pilot Evaluations are available on a limited basis.
  • Each Pilot will run for 6 – 12 months.

Contact us today for a free ROI assessment and learn if your lagoon qualifies to participate in this program.

mega bubble
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DNA-based performance comparison of anaerobic digesters

DNA-based performance comparison of anaerobic digesters

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Performance comparison of anaerobic digesters using next generation DNA sequencing

Anaerobic digesters are employed in wastewater, landfill and livestock operations worldwide to create renewable energy. Improving biogas production in a one-million gallon reactor by 5-10% can offset up to $200,000 annually in power costs when used for onsite power (Ling, A. 2020).

This study used 60 samples from 21 digesters representing a variety of industries, feedstocks, reactor design, and operational conditions. Microbial community data and digester operation and outcome data were used to understand the relationships between operation, community members, and outcomes.

Each digester and site studies had specific digester microbiomes that were more similar to each other than to other digesters. This suggests that microbial community results are site-specific. The community composition associated with optimum results will vary between sites. Despite this limitation, some general community trends were observed across the samples studied, and these may be used to make general conclusions about digester operation and community structure. Briefly,

  • Higher relative abundances of total archaea, pseudomonads, and commomonads correlated to higher percent CH4 in produced gas
  • Thermophilic conditions and blanket-type reactors correlated to higher archaea relative abundances and higher percent CH4 in produced gas
  • COD removal correlated directly to CH4 production
  • Higher VFA to alkalinity ratios and lower pH in the ranges observed (pH 6.7 to 7.8 and VFA : alkalinity 0.04-0.24) correlated to higher archaea relative abundances
  • Digesters treating municipal wastes harbored more diverse and even communities than digesters treating only industrial wastes, possibly due to the regular addition of waste activated sludge.

Based on these results, several key microbial indicators were identified for use in tracking changes in a digester microbiome:

    • Community diversity (number of microbe types)
    • Community evenness (how evenly microbe types are distributed)
    • Total relative abundance of:
      • Total methanogens (total archaea)
      • Key methanogen groups: Methanobacterium spp., Methanosaeta spp., Methanothermobacter spp.
digester benchmarking study
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WWTP saves $35m with Low DO, 1-step nitrification/de-nitrification

WWTP saves $35m with Low DO, 1-step nitrification/de-nitrification

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CASE STUDY

Wastewater municipality saves $35 million with one-step nitrification/de-nitrification

The Problem

Trinity River Authority, TX (162MGD) needed an optimal nutrient removal strategy for a planned significant expansion in capacity. Assuming a standard two-step nitrification/de-nitrification process, the budgeted capital cost was $50 million.

The Solution

Under the guidance of Leon Downing, PhD, PE, a Consulting Engineer and Northwestern University, McCormick School of Engineering, a one-step nitrification/de-nitrification process was validated over five years by gradually reducing dissolved oxygen (DO) levels to a super low setpoint. Microbe Detectives next generation DNA analysis and other test methods were used to measure changes in the ecology and validate results.

Hypothesis: As we adopt lower aeration operation, ecology will shift and nutrient removal capacity will not be be decreased.

Action: Gradually progressed from 2.0 mg/l to 0.2 mg/l dissolved oxygen (DO) operating conditions over 5 years in 4 aeration basins.

Result: Commamox (CMX) bacteria was validated to emerge and become the primary “workhorse” delivering an improvement in nutrient removal at a super low DO setpoint with a one-step nitrification/de-nitrification process.

Benefits

Basin Design Savings: $35 million

Pre-study $50 million estimated
Post-study $15 million actual cost

Operating Savings: $490,000/year

$350,000/year aeration savings
$140,000/year chlorine savings

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Wastewater municipality saves $6m by reducing lagoon biosolids

Wastewater municipality saves $6m by reducing lagoon biosolids

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A California municipal wastewater treatment facility (WWTF) with 4 lagoons primarily processed municipal waste as well as several types of commercial/ industrial waste, including waste from a tomato processing plant and a dairy processing plant, for a total of 2.8 million gallons a day.

CASE STUDY

Wastewater municipality saves $6 million by reducing lagoon biosolids by 68 million gallons in one year

The Problem

The influent to the wastewater system was primarily municipal, with some commercial and industrial sources (25%) for a total of 2.8 million gallons a day. Each primary lagoon – Ponds 1A and 1B – was estimated to hold 25 million gallons of water.

A sludge judge was performed on the primary lagoons as a baseline. The overall lagoon depth averaged 10 feet with 2 feet of freeboard. It was determined that the sludge blanket was greater than 5 feet in several locations in both primary lagoons, Pond 1A and Pond 1B. The high average sludge-blanket depth significantly reduced the primary lagoon’s overall capacity.

The Solution

A biostimulant was selected to support the reduction of the organic solids in the system. The liquid biostimulant was added via peristaltic pump to the lagoon inlets. Initially the dose applied was 7 ppm and was eventually decreased 10 months later to 5 ppm. A maintenance dose of 3 ppm was established 2 months later.

Results

Measurements used to calculate sludge removal are shown in Table 1 below. These values correlated to about 9,375,000 gallons of sludge removal or about 2,800 truckloads. An additional 57.4 MG/Year of solids were treated in addition to what was removed resulting in a total sludge removal of 66.8 million gallons of sludge, or 17,800 dry tons. At a cost of $340/dry ton for hauling offsite and disposal, the estimated savings was $6,066,000.

Table 1 – Sludge Removal Calculations

Benefits

• $6 million cost avoidance in dredging, hauling, disposal costs.
• 45% reduction of sludge depth
• Equivalent of 17,810 dry tons of sludge removed

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