Handbook of Environmental Engineering: Vol. 9 Advanced Biological Treatment Processes

Citation

Llaurado, J.G. (2010), "Handbook of Environmental Engineering: Vol. 9 Advanced Biological Treatment Processes", Management of Environmental Quality, Vol. 21 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/meq.2010.08321cae.002

Handbook of Environmental Engineering: Vol. 9 Advanced Biological Treatment Processes

Handbook of Environmental Engineering: Vol. 9 Advanced Biological Treatment Processes

Article Type: Books and resources From: Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, Volume 21, Issue 3

Lawrence K. Wang, Nazih K. Shammas and Yung-Tse HungHumana PressSpringer Science + Business Media, LLCNew York NYMay 2009738 pp.ISBN 978-1-60327-170-7US$ 195

This book, Vol. 9, in the series of the Handbook of Environmental Engineering “is a sister book to Vol. 8 Biological Treatment Processes”. Its Editors point out that “the organization of the book has been based on the three basic forms in which pollutants and waste are manifested: gas, solid and liquid. In addition, noise pollution control is included in the handbook series”. Because “of the unusually broad field of environmental engineering” expertise could only be provided through multiple authorships. Volume 9 comprises 17 chapters of varied extension, with a lengthy appendix on units’ conversion factors, written by 23 authors from North-America, Europe and Asia.

Owing to the length of the present volume it is impossible to comment in detail on the contents of each chapter; hence I shall indicate the chapters’ title to hint at the topics covered to which I shall add a few comments when deemed opportune.

Chapter 1, “Principles and kinetics of biological processes”, begins with basic concepts of microbiology and kinetics. The interaction of different species of living organisms: bacteria, fungi, algae and protozoa is discussed. There is a lot of equations here, both mathematical and chemical, but each term is defined carefully so that it is relatively easy to follow the exposition of material.

Chapter 2 on “Vertical shaft bioreactors” [VSB] –-a system that originated in UK from research efforts for the synthesis and production of single cell protein using methanol as feedstock–- describes an aerobic fermentor vertical shaft with high hydrostatic pressure. Progressively it has developed into a high rate activated sludge process. The VERTREAT™ bioreactor is covered in detail with emphasis on the three separate treatment zones: oxidation, mixing and polishing. Briefly, the “VSB treatment is a high-rated activated sludge process in which a very high mixed liquor microbial population can be maintained to achieve proportionally increased organic removal rates”.

Chapter 3 deals with Aerobic granulation technology, i.e. a novel “process of cell-to-cell self-immobilization [of microorganisms] involving biological, physical and chemical actions”. Chapter 4, “Membrane bioreactors”, presents an historical description of membranes for achieving solid-liquid separation that can be applied to “an environmental engineering process, the solids may be activated sludge, and the liquid may be the biologically treated wastewater”. Membrane processes include at least five subcategories: microfiltration, ultrafiltration, nanofiltration, reverse osmosis, electrodialysis. Examples of installations in France and Belgium are extensively given.

Chapter 5 deals with SBR [Sequencing Batch Reactor] systems for biological nutrient removal. These devices “have been successfully used to treat both municipal and industrial wastewater”. There are excellent illustrations that allow for easy comprehension of the material.

Chapter 6 with the title of “Simultaneous nitrification and denitrification” (SymBio® process) “eliminates the need for a separate denitrification tank and mixed liquor recycle”. This is a sophisticated process that uses the measurement of the intracellular pool of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) for assessing the real-time biological activity in activated sludge systems. A considerable amount of biochemistry and microbiology is presented in this chapter. Abundant use is made here from proprietary names such as the SymBio® (property of Biobalance A/S Denmark) in operation at Big Bear, California by the Big Bear Area Regional Wastewater Agency (BBARWA) and the Bardenpho in operation at Perris, California by the Eastern Municipal Water District.

Chapter 7 deals with Single-sludge biological systems for nutrients removal. The single-sludge is in opposition to conventional activated-sludge processes where all reactions –-bioxidation, nitrification and denitrification–- occur in three separated bioreactors connected in series. Again, there is an abundance of chemical formulae here and considerable space is devoted to numerous stoichiometric equations as a “strategy of looking on all biological substrate removal processes as composed of a respiration (energy) reaction and a synthesis (biosolids production) reaction”. I checked on some of these equations and found them to be accurate. The Coxsackie wastewater treatment plant, in a correctional facility for juveniles located in the south of Albany, New York, is extensively described. This chapter, in my opinion, is one of the best in the book and was written by Wang and Shammas, in memoriam of Carl Beer a pioneer in the field of single sludge biological systems.

Chapter 8 is entitled “Selection and design of nitrogen removal processes”. Generally such selection varies according to more or less stringent effluent limitations for suspended solids [SS]. Design features must be considered during a facility sizing and design phases.

Chapter 9 has nine co-authors dealing with a novel Column bioreactor clarifier process (CBCP). It is a Ukrainian-Canadian project studying the quality of natural waters including the Dniper [sic] river. If a sign of authenticity were needed, a label in Cyrillic filtrates through one of the figures. The contribution of several Ukrainian authors to a book printed in the West certainly should be welcomed.

Chapter 10 entitled “Upflow sludge blanket filtration” “covers the whole spectrum of chemical and biological treatment of water using the agglomeration processes for transformation of colloidal and dissolved impurities in water into separable floc suspension”. The original plant for chemical treatment with this technology was first built in Brno, Czech republic in 1955.

Chapter 11, “Anaerobic lagoons and storage ponds” are frequently used for agricultural waste pretreatment and storage correspondingly. Chapter 12 “Vertical shaft digestion, flotation, and biofiltration” is an enlargement on Chapter 2.

Chapter 13, “Land application of biosolids”, describes how “essentially organic materials produced during wastewater treatment … may be put to beneficial use”. In 1995 “approximately 54 per cent of wastewater treatment plants managed biosolids through land application, an increase of almost 20 per cent from information reported in 1993. The vast majority of these land application programs use agricultural land, with minor amounts applied to forest lands, rangelands, or land in need of reclamation”. There are requirements for wastewater processing regarding quantity and quality, and they are thoroughly explained in this chapter.

Chapter 14, “Deep-well injection for waste management”, explains that “[a]lthough rocks such as sandstone, shale, limestone appear to be solid they can contain significant voids or pores that allow water and other fluids to fill and move through them”. Gravel or sand, clean and uniform, will have about 30 per cent to 40 per cent of its volume available for “storage” space. Practically all of the subsurface porous space is already occupied by natural water, either fresh or mineralized, called aquifers. Hence, “injection does not usually involve the filling of unoccupied space; but rather consists of the compression or displacement of existing fluids”. Direct injection into a drinking water aquifer can contaminate ground water. This is why managing injection wells is strictly regulated by the US Congress. In order to protect the aquifers a variety of measures have been developed and can be used to assure that the injection well systems will not contaminate the protected aquifer. These measures are described in extenso and examples of well-known establishments are reviewed.

In addition to disposal of wastewater and hazardous wastes, injection through a well has also been employed for disposing of radioactive waste. The waste is mixed with cement to form slurry that is injected through a well; a horizontal fracture is developed hydraulically and the slurry is caused to harden in place. This method has been used successfully since 1967 at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

In Chapter 15, “Natural biological treatment processes”, the authors write on aquaculture, i.e. “the production of aquatic organisms (both flora and fauna) under controlled conditions … practiced for centuries, primarily for the generation of food, fiber and fertilizer”. The water hyacinth, Eichhornia crassipes, is a large fast-growing floating aquatic plant “with broad, glossy green leaves and liquid lavender flowers”. By passing the wastewater through a hyacinth-covered basin the plants remove nutrients, a 5-day biochemical oxygen demand, suspended solids, metals, etc., all with little effect on the hyacinth that ultimately can be used as a fertilizer/soil conditioner and as a source of methane when anaerobically digested. Other natural biological treatment processes are the wetland system, the evapotranspiration system, the rapid rate system and the slow rate system (the last one being the predominant municipal land practice in the United States).

Chapter 16, “Emerging suspended-growth biological processes”, mostly with powdered activated carbon treatment, and Chapter 17, “Emerging attached-growth biological processes”, mostly fluidized-bed reactors, round off the multiplicity of described processes. The readers will find in these chapters “their practice, limitations, process design, performance, energy requirements, process equipment, costs and case studies”.

Consonant with previous sisters of the series, this volume is voluminous [pun intended!!] and heavy. It is handsomely printed with superior quality paper and good binding. It abounds in illustrations, both pictorial and tabular. There are numerous references at the end of each chapter listing complete titles and all authors for each publication including some of 2008 and even 2009. The appendix for units’ conversion is the same as in preceding volumes of the series; thus there is duplication (inadvertently, I suppose, written as “duplicity” [?!] by the Editors, a carry over from earlier volumes) in units’ usage in the sense that both the Imperial/American system and the metric system are generally employed. Many industrial companies are mentioned throughout the text, but there is no blatant advertising.

In the Preface the Editors warn us that some material may be repetitious because of the multiplicity of contributors, but I did not expect the Appendix entitled “United States Yearly Average Costs Index for Utilities US Army Corps of Engineers” to be inserted in pages 183, 477, 520, 617, 648, 681 and may be more.

In pointing out a few errors, their presence almost unavoidable in a book of such magnitude, I do not want to detract from its value. For practically each procedure or modality treatment the purpose of a system, the listed specifications, the theoretical considerations, the necessary equipment, the operation and maintenance, the costs in power sources and number of staff, and the advantages and limitations of the procedure are discussed at length and in easy language. Where and when there is a mathematical analysis it is always done with extreme clarity and step by step.

The book promises to be very useful not only to advanced graduate students of civil and environmental engineering, but also to their teachers, preceptors and mentors as well as to designers of wastewater treatment, biosolids and sludge treatment systems. Lawyers working in this field may find it useful too.

J.G. LlauradoDeputy Editor, MEQ