THE PROJECT
A leading corporate group engaged in the production of steel has both coke ovens and coal gasifiers for steel production activities along with a power plant at their flagship premises.
The PROBLEM
The premises have a full-fledged Biological Wastewater treatment comprising chemical pre-treatment and effluent treatment plant steel industry activated sludge process with conventional clarifier. However, due to various issues related to the plant and the poor commissioning process followed during the start-up phase, the plant was not achieving the desired results in the biological process for Phenols, Ammonia, Cyanide, and COD reduction.
The client is required to achieve better performance by achieving the latest PCB discharge criteria of COD< 150 ppm, Ammonia < 5 ppm, Phenol < 1 ppm, and Cyanide < 0.2 ppm for the Bio-ETP.
THE SOLUTION
After an initial consultation with the clients, Levapor India Pvt Ltd was assigned the project to correct the effluent treatment plant steel industry performance of the ETP and achieve the desired results at the treatment capacity of 350 m3/hr flow rate
Based on our preliminary analysis of the data furnished and numerous site visits, a detailed plan for the revival of the ETP was laid out with principal steps taken as below:
- Optimize the chemical pre-treatment performance for the removal of target pollutants like Oil & Grease, Cyanide.
- Optimize nutrient dosing to keep right COD: N: P ratio
- Addition of soda ash for the alkalinity supplement for nitrification
- Addition of special bio culture for Phenol, Cyanide degradation, and nitrification
- Adjustment of Blowers, RAS pump operation
- Continuous onsite training of the plant operators
- Rigorous monitoring of various operating parameters like DO, MLSS, SVI, PO4, Alkalinity dosing
THE RESULTS
Over the period of one and half years, after rigorous process control and continuous improvement and adjustment of the plant operating window, the plant has developed full functional biomass nitrifying to Ammonia < 1 ppm levels and also achieving COD < 150 ppm, Phenol < 1 ppm under varying operating conditions of inlet wastewater qualitative and quantitative fluctuations.
The biomass developed is so good that with minimal chemical treatment, it is achieving desired levels of pollutant removal rendering clients huge savings on the chemical cost for the primary treatment of the so-called biodegradable pollutants.
THE BENEFITS
- Consistently achieving COD < 150 ppm, Ammonia < 1 ppm, Phenols < 1 ppm
- Reduced chemical cost and savings of up to 50-70 lacs per month
- Better quality of treated effluent at the secondary clarifier outlet reducing post-treatment cost
- Better performance of the tertiary treatment
Amit Christian is a MSc graduate in Environment Science from Middlesex University, London, UK. He has been active in the field of water and wastewater treatment since 1998. He specializes in the design, engineering, and management of various biological wastewater treatments such as Activated Sludge Process (ASP), Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR), Moving Bed Bio Reactor (MBBR), and Integrated Fixed Film Activated Sludge (IFAS). He has helped various Industrial and Municipal clients in troubleshooting, and optimizing their biological wastewater treatment processes to achieve the latest Stringent norms for Ammonia Removal.
