Aqua-Aerobic Systems, Inc. has partnered with the Colorado School of Mines' Advanced Water Technology Center (AQWATEC) and Mines' Small Flow Program to conduct field testing on the Aqua-Aerobic MBR decentralized wastewater treatment system.
The system consists of a full-scale sequencing batch reactor (SBR) coupled with Koch PURON membranes. The main objective of the research project is to assess the performance of the decentralized system by treating one of the campus' housing community domestic wastewater sources (about 400 apartments). The focus of the testing is on the optimization of the treatment process for biological nutrient removal (BNR), membrane operation and process adjustment for constant and seasonal flow patterns.
On Feb. 17, 2009, Colorado School of Mines hosted a dedication event to celebrate the start-up of the research project. AQWATEC began testing the onsite Aqua-Aerobic MBR system, which utilizes two alternating adjacent batch reactor trains with a flow capacity of 6 to 12 gal per minute. Additionally, the school operates a bench-scale conventional MBR (10 to 15 gal per hour), which complements the full-scale MBR system. It utilizes a smaller PURON hollow-fiber, submerged membrane module, and can be operated as needed to compare performance between various treatment schemes.
Preliminary studies revealed that the Aqua-Aerobic MBR system is highly efficient for onsite non-potable reuse, or direct discharge to a stream in decentralized wastewater treatment applications. The system is suitable for flows of 5,000 to 50,000 gal per day. Its advantages include enhanced BNR, low energy consumption, reuse quality effluent and a small footprint.
Source: Aqua-Aerobic Systems, Inc.
