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Development of a wastewater treatment system based on a fixed-film, anaerobic bioreactor

Conference ·
OSTI ID:5590206
; ; ;
An energy-conserving wastewater treatment system based on a fixed-film anaerobic bioreactor is being developed. The treatment process is based on passing wastewaters upward through the bioreactor for continuous treatment by gravitational settling, biophysical filtration, and biological decomposition. A 2-year pilot plant project using a bioreactor designed to treat 5000 gpd has beed conducted using raw wastewater on a municipal site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It is estimated that hydraulic loading rates of 0.2 gpm/ft/sup 2/ and hydraulic residence times of 10 h could be used in designing such bioreactors for the secondary treatment of municipal wastewaters. Conceptual designs for total treatment systems processing up to 1.0 million gallons of wastewater per day (mgd of wastewater) were developed based on the performance of the pilot-plant bioreactor. These systems were compared to activated sludge treatment systems also operating under secondary treatment requirements and were found to consume as little as 30% of the energy required by the activated sludge systems. The economic advantages of the process result from the elimination of operating energy requirements associated with the aeration of aerobic-based processes and with the significant decrease of sludge-handling costs required with conventional activated-sludge treatment systems. Methane produced by anaerobic fermentation processes occurring during the biological decomposition of carbonaceous wastes also represented a significant and recoverable energy production term as wastewater flow rates approached 1.0 mgd.
Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA); Associated Water and Air Resources Engineers, Inc., Nashville, TN (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-26
OSTI ID:
5590206
Report Number(s):
CONF-800124-1
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320604* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Municipalities & Community Systems-- Municipal Waste Management-- (1980-)
ANAEROBIC DIGESTION
BIOCONVERSION
BIODEGRADATION
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMMERCIALIZATION
DECOMPOSITION
DEMONSTRATION PROGRAMS
DIGESTION
ECONOMICS
ENERGY CONSERVATION
EVALUATION
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
LIQUID WASTES
MANAGEMENT
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NORTH AMERICA
OAK RIDGE
ORNL
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PROCESSING
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
SEWAGE
SOUTHEAST REGION
TENNESSEE
US AEC
US DOE
US ERDA
US ORGANIZATIONS
USA
WASTE MANAGEMENT
WASTE PROCESSING
WASTE WATER
WASTES
WATER
WATER TREATMENT
WATER TREATMENT PLANTS