USFilter and the Rib Mountain (Wis.) Metropolitan Sewerage District (RMMSD) are teaming up on a project to demonstrate the effectiveness of a new wastewater treatment technology USFilter’s Zimpro Products (Rothschild, Wis.) is introducing to the North American market.
The process, called AGAR™ (Attached Growth Airlift Reactor), increases the treatment capacity of an existing wastewater treatment plant without requiring additional aeration basins to be built. The technology adds proprietary plastic media to the aeration basin, providing surface area for fixed film biomass to attach. This significantly increases the biological capacity of the system without increasing the physical aeration basin size. The process can be operated as a fixed film process for simplicity of operation or as an IFAS (Integrated Fixed-film Activated Sludge) process to maximize treatment capabilities.
The demonstration project at RMMSD consists of converting one of four aeration basins to the AGAR process to be operated in the IFAS mode. The project consists of two operational phases. The first phase is designed to demonstrate the ability to significantly increase the treatment capacity of the existing basin while meeting the same effluent criteria. The second phase is designed to demonstrate the ability of the process to provide enhanced biological nutrient removal for a system that is currently only doing secondary treatment, again without increasing the aeration basin volume.
The demonstration project is currently under construction and is expected to start-up in early March.
Source: USFilter
