In the year 2017, while we were canvassing for prospective clients through linkedin.com , we came across EMD Head for an integrated steel plant. After an initial exchange of information, we were informed that the company is looking for someone to work on their existing ETP performance correction of activated sludge process and upgrade. The organization had existing CGP and was adding further Coke Oven batteries. It was imperative for them to provide assurance to the authorities that their existing ETP would take care of effluents generated from both units and has capability to treat the effluents.
However, the principal issue was that the existing ETP was not delivering results as per the latest PCB guidelines for wastewater discharge within the steel industry. ETP itself was designed by leading consultants and EPC work was done by another leading organization in the field. Despite having a large infrastructure, the ETP was not performing as per the design requirements and expectations. So everyone in the organization was skeptical about whether the ETP was capable enough to handle the effluents generated from both Coke Oven and CGP.
After initial analysis of the existing ETP and comparing it with standard design parameters and actual parameters of inlet wastewater quality, it was our conclusion that existing ETP can be configured to achieve the required results and has enough capability to treat both Coke Oven and CGP effluents.
Based on our analysis of the data available and site visit, we proposed the management a plan with proposed modifications required in the ETP to achieve the latest norms for Phenol, Ammonia, Cyanide, and COD standards for Integrated Steel plants.
The proposal was met with a lot of scepticism and doubts within the organization as the organization’s earlier experience with the ETP running was not pleasant. We had given them assurance that if they followed our modification suggestions and practiced the operational window we were proposing, we could guarantee them the required results without any issues. After a lot of online meetings and presentations at various levels, finally we were awarded the contract but with a lot of scepticism and fear in mind that they were trusting a company that was completely unknown to them. After all, we were not representing a very large conglomerate or so-called big companies in the field!
We kept telling the EMD head and Plant’s head to trust us and assured them that if they could give us the required equipment, chemicals, and permission to operate the plant as per our operating window, results would be guaranteed. Still fear was mounting on them because if we failed, the whole unit would have faced shutdown due to noncompliance with treated effluent criteria.
So in the first quarter of 2019, we started working on the ETP. It was such a big mess created by giants of the field, that we had already informed the clients that correcting it would require at least one year. After all, Coke Oven and CGP effluents are toxic, and achieving the required level of nitrification in such effluent demands a lot of patience and continuous effort. Patience, Perseverance, and practicing disciplined operating protocol were key to success.
Despite hurdles due to a lot of internal opinions and scepticism, finally, management started responding to our pleas for requisite chemicals, and equipment and utilizing them in the ETP without making any cost consideration for the time being. Reviving a nearly dead patient requires a lot of time, energy, and cost consideration.
Finally, at the end of the second quarter, first time in the history of the plant operation, outlet ammonia was showing a reducing trend compared to the inlet ammonia concentrations. There were many process upsets due to inherent problems associated with an integrated steel plant but finally, the biological life within the reactors was revived. Once the bugs had started flourishing in the reactors, the next task was simply to keep the right environment for their optimum growth which we have been doing for the last year day and night without fail.
Finally, the results are so encouraging that many are feeling like this is a miracle! You can see this in the attached video. The left side clip is of the biomass condition in the aeration tank in 2018 when we were just starting the project and the right side clip shows perfectly brownish, well-flocculating biomass achieving remarkable results which are unparalleled in any steel industry.
In the past one and half years, we have made so much effort in order to achieve these results that now we have become attached to the plant and people developing a kind of love/hate relationship!
In the subsequent blogs, we will share information related to the various problems we had faced with this plant in terms of its engineering, operation methodology, and many other issues while optimizing it. Keep following!
If you have any ETP requiring performance correction, do contact us at info@levapor.com
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 latest Stringent norms for Ammonia Removal.
