Biosolids Corner "Snippets" January - February 2005 New Years Resolutions for Biosolids Managers LOSE WEIGHT -reduce the weight of material that must be used or disposed. More details on this are provided below.GET IN SHAPE Your files, that is. Keep all biosolids information together including General Permits, Biosolids Analysis, Record Keeping and Reporting forms, and operating records. Remember the deadline for the EPA Annual Report is February 19th and PADEP land application permits require submittal of Recordkeeping and Reporting forms by March 1.SPEND MORE TIME WITH THE KIDS Invite your local schools to come to your wastewater treatment plant or land application site on their class trips. Alternatively, staff an information booth at local community events such as watershed festivals, county fairs, and earth day celebrations. Students have a tremendous interest in environmental issues and environmental curriculums are offered on both the high school and college levels. One of the best ways to gain public support for biosolids recycling is to make a good first impression. Reach them early, reach them often.REDUCE ODORS This may be last but not least on my list. Reducing biosolids odors at the wastewater treatment plant, biosolids processing site and the end use or disposal site will make others happy and will make your life easier!More on How to Lose Weight - By reducing the weight of biosolids produced, you can save money, reduce demands on staff, and improve product quality. What are the steps to losing weight? Start at the beginning- your collection system. Excessive infiltration and inflow can introduce a significant quantity of inert material that you will ultimately have to pay to process, use and/or dispose. During large rain events this can compromise digester performance, not only by increasing solids loadings and reducing detention time, but inerts can actually have an inhibitory effect on the digestion process. As a result, you may get a lower volatile solids destruction, and therefore have more organic matter (added weight) in the biosolids which must be pumped, dewatered, stored, trucked and used or disposed. In addition, commercial and industrial discharges can affect digestion. Many pollutants in sufficient concentrations can inhibit the biological process. And again, some industries may discharge a large enough quantity of non digestible solids to inhibit digestion or just take up capacity and reduce detention time.The next important process is digestion. If you can optimize digestion, more volatile solids will be destroyed and you will lose weight. Factors that will increase volatile solids destructions are: increased temperatures, longer detention times, more and better mixing, feeding frequently and consistently, and loading rates within design criteria. Please pardon me if I am stating the obvious, but often operators and managers lose track of these factors. If you achieve 38% volatile solids reduction (VSR), that is satisfactory and meets the bare minimum for land application. But many WWT plants can achieve an average of 50% VSR. Dewatering is also a process which, if optimized, can result in significant weight loss. Increasing Total Solids by a few percentage points can make a big difference. For example, increasing from 18% to 22% will result in an overall weight loss of 18%.Ways to improve dewatering include using the right polymer and optimizing the way polymer is mixed, handled and stored. Advances in instrumentation and automation have successfully optimized dewatering. Managers could also ask the manufacturer of your equipment for a review and tune up. Another alternative would be to compare design criteria with actual operating parameters.In the emerging technologies arena there are several manufacturers offering equipment, enzymes or microbes that claim they will significantly reduce the weight of solids resulting from wastewater treatment. PWEA Biosolids Committee new Co-Chairs; Matt Gray and Dan Nelson held their first committee meeting via conference call on October 29. In keeping with President Christine Hilditchs requests, the committee is planning the biosolids topics for the Annual Conference and one day specialty conference es in the future. At the same time, the committee will continue to track, inform and respond to regulatory, legislative and research initiatives that will affect biosolids managers.Plans for the annual PENNTEC conference include morning and afternoon sessions, one on processing and one on end use and disposal. New for 2005, both sessions will be presented in the morning and repeated in the afternoon. |
