Managing toxic loadings at industrial wastewater treatment facilities can be challenging. Influent from food-processing industries can introduce harmful cleaning products.
The book Wastewater Bacteria, by Michael Gerardi, explains that surfactants in cleaning chemicals can harm the cell membranes and cellular proteins of wastewater microorganisms.¹ Biota with damaged cellular structures may be unable to properly metabolize the organic substrates and nutrients in wastewater.
Bioaugmentation can be used to mitigate the harmful effects of toxicity in wastewater systems. Introducing a concentrated and diverse community of microorganisms can increase functional plant biomass, reducing process recovery time following a toxic event.
The following case study outlines the use of BioLynceus® ProBiotic Scrubber® II (PBII) and Candy Carbon® (CC) for bioaugmentation at an industrial sequencing batch reactor (SBR) plant.
Figure 1. Case study industrial wastewater plant design. The facility
processes dairy wastewater with a single SBR tank (right), sludge
holding basin (middle), and equalization tank (left). The plant
experienced toxic loadings that inhibited the biological treatment.
The 0.05 MGD mechanical plant at a commercial dairy was experiencing frequent toxic events that were killing off the biology in its treatment process (Figure 1).
Highly concentrated loadings of disinfection chemicals and surfactants were introduced into the system following equipment cleaning at the dairy. This regularly disrupted
1 Gerardi, M. (2006). Wastewater Bacteria. Hoboken, New Jersey: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.Pp.184, 203.
the biological treatment process at the facility. Because of the toxic loadings, plant effluent quality was significantly reduced. After consulting a trusted wastewater expert, the plant operators were advised to augment the system with new biological microorganisms to restart the treatment process.
Figure 2. SBR tank processing high strength dairy wastewater.
A regimen of PBII and CC was implemented to restore biological treatment after a toxic loading. PBII supplied the plant with a functional community of microorganisms to facilitate wastewater processing, while CC provided a readily available carbon source for the added biology.
The goals of bioaugmentation were to (1) improve the recovery time of the treatment process and (2) stimulate biological treatment by increasing biomass.
Soon after the initial inoculation with PBII and CC, the wastewater operators commented on the rapid recovery time and efficiency of the restored biological treatment process. The plant was functioning properly after just a few days of treatment.
Additionally, bioaugmentation with PBII and CC improved the quality of the effluent discharged by the facility. Working with BioLynceus® and its affiliates helped the SBR operate efficiently and recover more easily after toxic loadings.
BioLynceus® ProBiotic Scrubber® II and Candy Carbon® help mitigate wastewater plant toxicity.