www.levapor.

com

Treatment of municipal sewage by LEVAPOR- Biofilm

Technology
 MUNICIPAL SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS AND
THEIR PROBLEMS

Municipal Waste Water Treatment Plants :

Open, 3 – 5 m deep aerated basins , low efficiency
aeration , earlier designed for BOD removal

Features:
High sludge production, high space requirement,
high energy consumption and odor problems.

Nitrogene removal (since 1980-ies) :

Slow reaction and slow growth of nitrifiers requires large
reactors, doubling of reactor volumes  increased costs
www.biocons.de
 NH4+ +1.5 O2 Nitrosomonas  NO2- + 2 H+ + H2O
ammonium (pH-value decreases ! )

NO2- + 0.5 O2 Nitrobacter  NO3-

NITRIFICATION = NH4+ bio-oxidation  NO3-

Nitrifying bacteria
• slowly growing
• low cell yield ( 3 % from N-oxidized
• weakly flocculating
• high sensitivity to some chemicals
Nitrosomonas europaea (non flocculating)
KEY QUESTION:

Is it possible to upgrade existing municipal

plants for nitrification ?

Our idea: Upgrading of plants by retention

of nitrifying biomass on LEVAPOR carrier !

Field-tests in Espoo and Helsinki:

filling 12 vol.% LEVAPOR carrier cubes into the
existing aerated basin !
 LEVAPOR: porous, adsorbing carrier

The adsorbing surface enables a faster and better

wetting of carrier material,
- a proper adsorption of toxic pollutants and
-faster colonisation of the carrier by microorganisms.
They are light ( 30 kg/m³) and easy fluidisiable
 Primary settler Aerated basin + carrier Clarifyer

Espoo (SF): Upgrading of an aerobic basin with LEVAPOR into a fluidised bed
reactor for nitrification of municipal effluents
Screens for carrier retention have been installed and
12 vol. % LEVAPOR were added into the aerobic basin
50,0
N (mg/L) TKNZul
45,0

40,0

35,0

30,0

25,0

20,0
NO3NAbl
15,0

10,0
NH4NAbl
5,0
07.11 02.02 02.05
0,0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47 49

3-4 weeks after addition of LEVAPOR at 10 to17°C a stable

nitrification has been establihed !
70
cubes/L

60

50

40

30 12.04.
27. Apr
20 27. Mai

10
w L-air (m³/m²xh)

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12

A usual aeration intensity achieves a nearby quantitative fluidisation

 DENITRIFI NITRIFI-
- CATION CATION
V = 22,8 CLRF
22,2 m³
m³

Operation of the plant in denitrification nitrification mode

60,0
N (mg/L)

50,0
TKNZul.

40,0

30,0

20,0
NH4NAbl.
NO3NAbl.
10,0

days
0,0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45 47

A pre - denitrification resulted remarkably lower outlet NO3N values

 Addition of 12 vol.% LEVAPOR carrier into
aerated basin of existing municipal plant in

resulted in

efficient nitrification within 3 weeks, remaining

stable over years !
Benefits for customers :
• 75,- 105 €/m³ costs instead of ~ 300- 350,- €/m³ for new
reactor volume (savings: 175 - 275,- €/m³ !).

• ca. 15- 25 % less excess sludge.

 Pilot test in WWTP CAIRO A

Hydraulic retention time 5,5 hr.

Volumetric loading rates 2,5 g COD/Lxd
1,3 gBOD/Lxd

Parameter Dimen- Inlet Out- Out

sion WWTP LEVAPOR

COD mg/L 370 - 575 40 - 50 28

BOD mg/L 200 - 290 21 11
TKN mg/L 30 - 35 18 7
12,0
N (mg/L)

10,0

8,0

6,0

4,0
NH4-out

2,0
NO3N-out
days
0,0
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43 45

CAIRO- municipal WWTP tests–due to anoxic areas within LEVAPOR,

simultaneous denitrification has been established in aerobic reactor
NINGAN SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANT, CHINA
 Legend Dimension NINGAN WWTP
Values (Aug. 2011)
Water flow m³/day 22.000

Volume of reactors m³ 3200 (4 x 800)

Volume LEVAPOR m³ 500 (15,6 %)

Hydraulic ret. time h 3,5

Lv, COD kg/m³xday 2,2

Results 2011 in out % removal

COD mg/L 320 20-25 92 – 94

BOD5 mg/L 158 5 97

NH4N mg/L 24 2-3 88 - 92

Two-step biotrickling-filter (BTF) for treatment of waste gases in a WWTP
Inlet-VOC concentrations of the air from sludge
processing before biotreatment in a the BTF
Outlet-VOC concentrations after biotreatment in a BTF