Effect Of Winter On WWTP

The main goal of a wastewater treatment plant is to treat, degrade and convert waste into satisfactory by-products that do not harm the environment.

Biological treatment of waste is one of the key processes in the wastewater treatment facilities. The naturally occurring microbes play a major role in breaking down organic waste.

The wastewater thereafter constitutes of sludge and the effluent which is released into the environment.

There are many factors which affect the performance of wastewater treatment system and one of them is temperature. It is an important parameter which influences the biological treatment of wastewater as well.

Therefore, during the winter season, the wastewater treatment facilities face some major challenges.

One of the major effects of cold is the slowing down of the activity of helpful microbes available in the treatment plants. Low temperature is not conducive for microbial growth or production and metabolism.

Thus, the natural microbial community is unable to efficiently perform the function of breaking down organic waste reaching wastewater plants. Moreover, it becomes difficult to manage the amount of Mixed liquor suspended solids – MLSS generated in the facility.

According to wastewater treatment experts, for every temperature drop of around 10 degrees F, microbes lose about one log of potential growth that is 90% reduction.

Bacterial growth requires a temperature between 59 – 113 degrees F. Additionally, the low temperature due to winter disturbs the effluent BOD and TSS limits.

It is estimated that BOD degradation rates drop and TSS increases during the winter season. The sludge formation increases, and removal efficiency decreases as well.

Other factors like dissolved oxygen, retention time, pH balance of wastewater and nutritional requirements are affected drastically.

In winter months, the growth of filamentous bacteria causes a major problem for wastewater treatment plants. It is predominantly caused due to low dissolved oxygen, low F/M ratio or high sulphide levels.

It causes serious settling problems.

Thus, it can be summarized that wastewater treatment efficiency takes a dip when the temperature is low, and this leads to disastrous consequences.

Elevated levels of waste in effluent makes it toxic and harmful to the environment. Various elements like nitrogen are released into the water resources which causes eutrophication.

Aquatic animals suffer from lack of oxygen. Humans who end up consuming such water get affected by different diseases as well.

The poor performance of wastewater treatment plants often leads to higher operation and maintenance costs. It is important to prevent the problem than addressing the issue when treatment facilities malfunction.

There are several solutions like increasing wastewater temperature and reduce waste loading but they are not economical and efficient in the long run.

To overcome the mentioned challenges in the winter season, innovative solutions can be used to boost the performance of wastewater treatment facilities. An increase in the biological degradation of waste is possible by using a special microbial community.

Organica Biotech is one of the leading companies with an amazing range of wastewater treatment solutions.

Cleanmaxx is a specialized heterogenous concentrated consortium of uniquely functional bacteria that is active over a wide range of temperatures and pH.

It thrives in high TDS and low dissolved oxygen conditions and aids in faster MLSS development during the winter season.

Moreover, it promotes rapid biomass generation capacity.

It can be used for all suspended and attached growth processes like Activated Sludge Process (ASP), Sequence Bed Reactor (SBR), Lagoon process, Moving Bed Bioreactor (MBBR), Membrane Bioreactor (MBR), Rotating Biological Contractor (RBC) and Fluidised Air Bed Reactor.

Using Cleanmaxx in the biological treatment process is one of the best methods to enhance and maintain the performance of wastewater treatment plants during winters.