National parks attract millions of visitors each year.
Increasing seasonal traffic experienced by these
establishments can overload the wastewater treatment
infrastructure leading to treatment inefficiency and,
eventually, structural replacement. When starting up a
new plant, seeding with a healthy biomass is vital for
instilling long-term treatment efficiency. The following
case study outlines the startup of a moving bed biofilm
reactor (MBBR) with Probiotic Scrubber® II (PBII) and
small amounts of activated sludge.
Figure 1. Fully installed and operating Kubota MBR System.https://
www.kubota.com/products/solutions/
A national park in Wyoming was installing a new 0.06
MGD Kubota manufactured MBBR system (Figure 1) to
replace their old and overloaded conventional activated
sludge plant (CAS). The quantity of wastewater
processed by the CAS plant continually increased
each tourist season, May to October. The high flows
generated by the transient populations at the park
frequently overwhelmed the facility. Specifically, during
the summer, the mechanical plant received flows which
well exceeded the small system’s treatment capacity.
Because the volume of influent delivered to the CAS
facility was beyond design specifications, the effluent
quality was declining, and the facility operators were
concerned with meeting their NPDES permit limits.
Figure 2. System diagrams comparing the treatment components
of a CAS and MBR. The Kubato MBR does not require a secondary
clarifier. MBR systems have greater treatment capacities with much
smaller footprints. https://www.kubota.com/products/solutions/
The plant management decided their infrastructure
needed to be replaced with a system which could
handle higher flows (Figure 2). Designing and building
the new MBBR facility would take a minimum of two
years. During that time, the current plant was required
to meet permit limits. The Utilities Supervisor at the park
contacted BioLynceus® to design a bioaugmentation
plan to improve the biological treatment efficiency of
their old system. The park used PBII at their facility
while the new MBBR was constructed. PBII provided
the biology needed to process high flows and keep the
plant within permit compliance.
When the time came to startup the MBBR facility, the
management at the plant decided to use a combination
of PBII and activated sludge to seed the reactor.
Maintaining a high treatment efficiency was essential
when starting up the new plant, so they opted to add
PBII into the system from the beginning. By adding
BioLynceus® product, the plant reduced their sludge
hauling costs, because they needed less activated sludge
to start the reactor. From startup, the MBBR system was
properly processing influent wastewater. Seeding the
reactor with PBII was financially beneficial for the park
and helped to instill a biomass that promoted efficient
treatment in their new system.
BioLynceus® ProBiotic Scrubber® II provides an effective biomass for MBR startup.