Investigation of the treatment process at Kungsberget's wastewater treatment plant under periods of irregular and low loads

• Main Author: Bercoff, Alexandra
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för informationsteknologi 2013
• Subjects: SBR; sequence batch reactor; wastewater treatment; Kungsberget; oxygen supply; phosphorous; seasonal load; solids retention time (SRT).
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-210159

At Kungsberget ski-resort in Gävleborg county all wastewater produced at the facility is treated on-site. The treatment takes place at their own wastewater treatment plant in a so-called Sequence Batch Reactor (SBR), which has been in operation for about a year before this study. Kungsberget AB is currently in charge of the facility but their goal is to hand responsibility over to Sandviken Energy AB. In order for this handover to occur Kungsberget has to produce three approved treatment results. This means that the concentrations of BOD7 needs to lie under 0.3 mg/l and total phosphorous under 10 mg/l in the effluent water for three consecutive samples. The results show momentaneous values. These limits are stated in the permit Kungsberget received from the Environmental Protection Division. Kungsberget has had problems with high and fluctuating phosphorous concentrations and therefore the transfer has not yet taken place. In this project several parameters have been analysed in order to obtain an overview of prevailing influent and effluent concentrations. Some of the parameters that have been analysed are; phosphorous, nitrogen, BOD7, suspended solids and pH. A lot of time and effort has been put into elucidating operational routines at the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) and gaining knowledge from available literature regarding different parameters’ effect on treatment results.   Kungsberget has had problems adapting operating routines and reaching stable treatment results as the load is highly effected of seasonal fluctuation. This has not been taken into account earlier and the WWTP has been operated in the same manner all year around. Suggestions to how operating routines can be modified in to better meeting the needs have been produced and alternative treatment methods have been presented in the report. Two of the suggestions include biological phosphorous removal and adding carrier media to increase bacteria growth. An aerobic solids retention time has been calculated in order to evaluate whether nitrifying bacteria have enough time for grow and maintain a stable population. The calculation was carried out by measuring suspended solids and aeration time and the result was a solids retention time of approximately 6 days.