To evaluate continuous and sporadic nitrification inhibition at the HRSD Nansemond Wastewater Treatment Plant, which has a history of nitrification upsets, continuous sequencing batch reactors (SBRs) were operated to simulate the full-scale plant. Four reactors were operated in this study. One reactor was fed with raw influent (RWI) from the Nansemond Wastewater Treatment Plant (NP). Another was fed with NP primary clarifier influent (PCI), which includes the raw influent, as well as plant recycle streams and truck delivered septage, grease, and chemical toilet waste. The remaining two SBRs were fed with RWI from the VIP Wastewater Treatment Plant, which achieves reliable nitrification year-round. One of these VIP SBRs would remain a control at all times, while the other would be used to evaluate suspected inhibitors to nitrification. The first phase of this project was to determine whether NP was inhibited when compared to VIP, which would be ascertained through a comparison of nitrification performance. The next step was to determine whether the source of inhibition was an industry within the collection system or plant recycles and delivered wastes, which would be ascertained based on comparison of the NR RWI and NP PCI reactor performance. If nitrification performance was comparable between the two SBRs, then it would indicate that the source of inhibition is somewhere within the collection system, whereas if the NP PCI reactor was inhibited when compared to the NP RWI reactor, it would mean that the inhibition is a result of plant recycles or delivered wastes. The next phase would be to determine the specific source by either working back up the collection system or by testing the plant recycles and delivered wastes. After approximately 27 weeks of SBR sampling and monitoring, there was no statistical difference between nitrification rates in reactors A and B, and no signs of nitrification inhibition in either reactor when compared to the VIP control Simulation modeling of reactors A, B, and D (control) was performed with BioWin 3.1 (EnviroSim, Ltd.) as a means for comparison and to ensure reactors were performing as intended. Results suggest that there was some level of continuous inhibition for both NP RWI and PCI reactors, however no sporadic inhibition events were observed. It also appeared that the VIP RWI control reactor experienced some level of continuous nitrification inhibition, although BioWin modeling results indicated that both NP RWI and NP PCI were more inhibitory than VIP RWI. Conclusions drawn from modeling results conflict with those drawn from nitrification rate comparisons. Since solids retention time (SRT) was maintained at exactly 15 days for all reactors, it was assumed that a direct comparison of corrected maximum nitrification rates could be used to compare nitrification performance between SBRs, however the significantly higher influent COD, TKN, and TSS loading to the NP reactors resulted in higher nitrification rates when compared to the VIP RWI control reactors. This was confirmed with BioWin modeling, which also showed consistently higher nitrification rates for NP when compared to VIP RWI, however BioWin also showed that maximum specific growth rates for ammonia-oxidizing bacteria (?maxAOB) in NP RWI and PCI were consistently lower than the ?maxAOB for VIP RWI. This indicates that NP RWI and NP PCI are slightly inhibitory to nitrification, with ?maxAOB values between 0.65 and 0.75 days??, and the fact that both NP RWI and NP PCI are both inhibitory suggests that the source of inhibition is somewhere within the collection system. In a simultaneous study using the reactors fed with raw influent from the VIP Wastewater Treatment Plant, reactor C was spiked with aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) such as that used in methanol feed facility fire suppression systems, while reactor D was left as a control. AFFF was initially added at a concentration of 20 ppm with no effect on either nitrification or denitrification performance. When increased to 40 ppm, the AFFF reactor experienced a complete loss of denitrification, while nitrification rates were not affected when compared with the control reactor. Reactor C took 31 days to fully acclimate to the AFFF feed and fully regain denitrification, and then exhibited no other performance problem throughout this acclimation period. This result was completely unexpected, appears to be repeatable, and is one of very few cases of selective denitrification (and COD uptake) inhibition, as opposed to more commonly observed nitrification inhibition. / Master of Science

Trots att avloppsreningsverkens primära syfte är att minska människans påverkan på miljön genom att bland annat reducera halten näringsämnen i vattnet bidrar de samtidigt till den ökande växthuseffekten. FN:s klimatpanel pekar ut avloppsreningsverk som en signifikant källa till direkt emission av lustgas och metan och det sker även indirekta emissioner uppströms och nedströms reningsverket. Samtidigt som diskussionen om klimatpåverkan från avloppsreningsverk växer är många recipienter hårt belastade och nu väntas en skärpning av utsläppsvillkoren för att minska tillförseln av näringsämnen till de naturliga vattensystemen. Studier har visat att skärpta utsläppsvillkor ökar klimatpåverkan från avloppsreningsverk. Två miljöproblem, övergödning och klimatförändringar, står mot varandra och måste värderas för att framtidens avloppsrening ska kunna planeras. Syftet var att undersöka hur klimatpåverkan från avloppsreningsverk påverkas av teknikval och utsläppsvillkor. Simuleringsverktyget BioWin användes för att beräkna koldioxidavtryck från Enköpings framtida avloppsreningsverk. Tre olika processtekniker (aktivslamprocessen, membranbioreaktor och aktivslamprocessen med biologisk fosforreduktion) och sju olika utsläppsvillkor studerades. I beräkningarna togs hänsyn till både direkta och indirekta emissioner genom bland annat lustgasproduktion, kemikalieförbrukning och användning av el. Den konventionella aktivslamprocessen orsakade minst koldioxidavtryck medan avtrycket från den moderna membranbioreaktorn var överlägset störst. En skärpning av utsläppsvillkoren för kväve och fosfor gav en ökning av koldioxidavtrycket med upp till 55 % och det var speciellt kvävekravet som styrde ökningen. Då utsläppsvillkoren skärptes ökade avtrycket mest från membranbioreaktorn vilket indikerar att den ur klimatsynpunkt lämpar sig sämre vid skärpta utsläppsvillkor. Lustgasemission stod för den största delen av koldioxidavtrycket. Lustgasemissionen ökade vid skärpta utsläppsvillkor samt då kvävereningen stördes, exempelvis vid låga vattentemperaturer. Fler komponenter bör tas i åtanke vid utvärdering av miljöpåverkan från ett avloppsreningsverk, exempelvis övergödning. Detta skulle göra det möjligt att bedöma den totala miljövinsten, eller förlusten, med att skärpa villkoren. / Although the primary aim for wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) is to minimize the environmental impact by reducing the content of nutrients in the wastewater, they also contribute to the increasing greenhouse effect. The International Panel on Climate Change refer to WWTP:s as a significant source of direct emission of nitrous oxide and methane and indirect emission also occurs upstream and downstream the WWTP. As the discussion about climate impact from WWTP is growing, many recipients are congested and a tightening of the discharge limits is expected in order to reduce the load of nutrients on the natural water systems. Studies have shown that more stringent discharge limits increases the climate impact from WWTP. Two environmental problems, eutrophication and climate change, are facing each other and they must be valued in order for future WWTP to be planned. The aim was to investigate how the climate impact of wastewater treatment plants is affected by choice of technology and discharge limits. The simulation tool BioWin was used to calculate the carbon footprint (CF) from the future WWTP in the town of Enköping. Three different process technologies (activated sludge process, membrane bioreactor and activated sludge process with biological phosphorus removal) and seven different discharge limits were examined. The calculations took into account both direct and indirect emissions from e.g. production of nitrous oxide and use of electricity. The conventional activated sludge process caused the smallest CF, while the modern membrane bioreactor by far caused the largest CF. Tightening of the discharge limits gave an increase of the CF with up to 55 %, and especially the demands on nitrogen governed the increase. More stringent limits increased the CF from the membrane bioreactor the most, which indicates that from an environmental point of view, this technique is less suitable when limits are tightened. Emission of nitrous oxide accounted for the largest part of the CF and this emission increased as the discharge limits were tightened and when the nitrogen treatment was disturbed by, for instance, low water temperatures. More components should be accounted for when environmental impact from WWTP is investigated, e.g. eutrophication. This would make it possible to assess the overall environmental gain, or loss, from tightening of the discharge limits.

Advanced wastewater treatment plants must meet permit requirements for organics, solids, nutrients and indicator bacteria, while striving to do so in a cost effective manner. This requires meeting day-to-day fluctuations in climate, influent flows and pollutant loads as well as equipment availability with appropriate and effective process control measures. A study was carried out to assess performance and process control strategies at the Falkenburg Road Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant in Hillsborough County, Florida. Three main areas for control of the wastewater treatment process are aeration, return and waste sludge flows, and addition of chemicals. The Falkenburg AWWTP uses oxidation ditches where both nitrification and denitrification take place simultaneously in a low dissolved oxygen, extended aeration environment. Anaerobic selectors before the oxidation ditches help control the growth of filamentous organisms and may also initiate biological phosphorus removal. The addition of aluminum sulfate for chemical phosphorus removal ensures phosphorus permit limits are met. Wasting is conducted by maintaining a desired mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentration in the oxidation ditches. For this study, activated sludge modeling was used to construct and calibrate a model of the plant. This required historical data to be collected and compiled, and supplemental sampling to be carried out. Kinetic parameters were adjusted in the model to achieve simultaneous nitrification-denitrification. A sensitivity analysis found maximum specific growth rates of nitrifying organisms and several half saturation constants to be influential to the model. Simulations were run with the calibrated model to observe relationships between sludge age, MLSS concentrations, influent loading, and effluent nitrogen concentrations. Although the case-study treatment plant is meeting discharge permit limits, there are several recommendations for improving operation performance and efficiency. Controlling wasting based on a target MLSS concentration causes wide swings in the sludge age of the system. Mixed liquor suspended solids concentration is a response variable to changes in sludge age and influent substrate. Chemical addition for phosphorus removal should also be optimized for cost savings. Finally, automation of aeration control using online analyzers will tighten control and reduce energy usage.

abstract: The objective of this research was to predict the persistence of potential future contaminants in indirect potable reuse systems. In order to accurately estimate the fates of future contaminants in indirect potable reuse systems, results describing persistence from EPI Suite were modified to include sorption and oxidation. The target future contaminants studied were the approximately 2000 pharmaceuticals currently undergoing testing by United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA). Specific organic substances such as analgesics, antibiotics, and pesticides were used to verify the predicted half-lives by comparing with reported values in the literature. During sub-surface transport, an important component of indirect potable reuse systems, the effects of sorption and oxidation are important mechanisms. These mechanisms are not considered by the quantitative structure activity relationship (QSAR) model predictions for half-lives from EPI Suite. Modifying the predictions from EPI Suite to include the effects of sorption and oxidation greatly improved the accuracy of predictions in the sub-surface environment. During validation, the error was reduced by over 50% when the predictions were modified to include sorption and oxidation. Molecular weight (MW) is an important criteria for estimating the persistence of chemicals in the sub-surface environment. EPI Suite predicts that high MW compounds are persistent since the QSAR model assumes steric hindrances will prevent transformations. Therefore, results from EPI Suite can be very misleading for high MW compounds. Persistence was affected by the total number of halogen atoms in chemicals more than the sum of N-heterocyclic aromatics in chemicals. Most contaminants (over 90%) were non-persistent in the sub-surface environment suggesting that the target future drugs do not pose a significant risk to potable reuse systems. Another important finding is that the percentage of compounds produced from the biotechnology industry is increasing rapidly and should dominate the future production of pharmaceuticals. In turn, pharmaceuticals should become less persistent in the future. An evaluation of indirect potable reuse systems that use reverse osmosis (RO) for potential rejection of the target contaminants was performed by statistical analysis. Most target compounds (over 95%) can be removed by RO based on size rejection and other removal mechanisms. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Civil and Environmental Engineering 2011

Advanced wastewater treatment plants have complex biological kinetics, time variant influent rates and long processing times. The modeling and operation control of wastewater treatment plant gets complicated due to these characteristics. However, a robust operational system for a wastewater treatment plant is necessary to increase the efficiency of the plant, reduce energy cost and achieve environmental discharge limits. These discharge limits are set by the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) for municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants to limit the amount of nutrients being discharged into the aquatic systems. This document summarizes the research to develop a supervisory operational and control system for the Valrico Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (AWWTP) in the Hillsborough County, Florida. The Valrico AWWTP uses biological treatment process and has four oxidation ditches with extended aeration where simultaneous nitrification and denitrification (SND) takes place. Each oxidation ditch has its own anaerobic basin where in the absence of oxygen, the growth of microorganisms is controlled and which in return also helps in biological phosphorus removal. The principle objective of this research was to develop a working model for the Valrico AWWTP using BioWin which mimics the current performance of the plant, predicts the future effluent behavior and allows the operators to take control actions based on the effluent results to maintain the discharge permit limits. Influent and experimental data from online and offline sources were used to tune the BioWin model for the Valrico Plant. The validation and optimization of the BioWin model with plant data was done by running a series of simulations and carrying out sensitivity analysis on the model which also allowed the development of operation policies and control strategies. The control strategies were developed for the key variables such as aeration requirements in the oxidation ditch, recycle rates and wastage flow rates. A controller that manipulates the wasting flow rate based on the amount of mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) was incorporated in the model. The objective of this controller was to retain about 4500-4600 mg/L of MLSS in the oxidation ditch as it is maintained by the Valrico Plant. The Valrico AWWTP recycles around 80% of their effluent and hence, the split ratios were adjusted accordingly in the model to recycle the desired amount. The effluent concentrations from the BioWin model for the parameters such as Total Nitrogen (TN), Ammonia, Nitrate, Nitrite, Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN) complied with the discharge limits which is usually less than 2 mg/L for all the parameters.

L'objectif principal de ce travail de thèse concerne l'étude de l' élimination de la DCO et de la nitrification dans une nouveau lit bactérien Multi-Section ( MSB ) . Après une caractérisation de l’hydrodynamique et du transfert d’oxygène de ce lit bactérien, les expériences biologiques menées sous des conditions opératoires contrastées (fortes et faibles charges organiques eteaux usées contenant ou pas des matières particulairs) ont été menées. En parallèle, des simulations avec le logiciel Biowin® ont été réalisées. Les principaux résultats sont résumés en suivant :- La rétention de liquide statique est majoritaire par rapport à la rétention dynamique que ce soit en présence ou en absence de biofilm. Le biofilm joue le rôle d’une "éponge" permettant un maintien de l’humidité du lit même à faible débit. Les expériences de DTS ont montré que le biofilm accroit le temps de séjour du liquide et conduit à une diminution de l’épaisseur du film liquide permettant ainsi de promouvoir le transfert de l'oxygène.- Le réacteur MSB montre une élimination efficace de la DCO (> 95 % ) et de la nitrification ( > 60 % de l’azote entrant), mais une accumulation de DCO particulaire a lieu dans le filtre ce qui conduira à un colmatage à terme. La nitrification cohabite avecl’élimination de la DCO même dans la première section et pour une charge organique élevée ce qui implique une bonne capacité d’oxygénation du MSB par l’aération naturelle.- Un modèle dynamique de MSB a été utilisé implémenté sur le simulateur - BioWin , afin d'obtenir la répartition des biomasses au sein du réacteur et d'évaluer le processus limitant dans chaque section. Le modèle partiellement calibré peut aider à estimer les besoins minimum d'oxygène pour la nitrification et peut rendre compte de la compétition entre la croissance hétérotrophe et la nitrification. / The main objective of this PhD work focused on the study of the COD removal and nitrification in a new designed Multi-Section Bioreactor (MSB). Hydrodynamic characterization of the reactor, biological experiments under contrasted conditions and simulations by Biowin® software were carried out:- Firstly, it was found that static liquid retention is the predominant part both without and with the presence of biofilm. Biofilm acts like a "sponge". RTD experiments showed that biofilm can promote liquid residence time, decrease the liquid film andpromote the oxygen transfer consequently.- Secondly, the MSB operated at contrasted organic loading rate (OLRs) and nitrogen loading rate (NLRs) showed that COD can be effectively removed (removal efficiency > 95%) and nitrification (> 60% of the N removal) occurred in this biofilter.Nitrification is efficient even in the first section implying no drastic oxygen limitation though only natural aeration is occurring.- Thirdly, a TF dynamic model has been used from a simulator - BioWin, in order to get more insights on the biomass distribution in the pilot and to assess the limiting process in each section of the bioreactor. Calibration of the model can help us to estimate theminimum oxygen requirement for nitrification for each zone inside the pilot and it can well represent the competition between heterotrophic growth and nitrification.