Steven Woodard (1), BRANDON M. MAYES (2), William J. Yawney (2)
(1) Cambridge Water Technology, Portland, ME; (2) Long Trail Brewing Company, Bridgewater Corners, VT
The Long Trail Brewing Company’s wastewater treatment plant was
designed to treat high-strength wastewater with a BOD5 concentration of
approx. 10,000 mg/L. The original treatment capacity was 500 lb/day of
BOD5, and the plant was limited by the performance of the secondary
clarifier. As Long Trail’s future plans called for increases in
production volume that would soon outgrow the brewery’s wastewater
treatment capacity, a cost-effective solution that could handle the
anticipated increase in high-strength brewery waste without overloading
the secondary clarifier was needed. A secondary objective was to enhance
nitrification and denitrification, to help protect the environment by
providing a higher level of nitrogen removal and overall treatment plant
stability. Long Trail considered upgrading its existing activated
sludge system using membrane bioreactors (MBRs) or high-rate anaerobic
treatment technology. The BioMag process was ultimately selected for its
cost-effective capability to increase the capacity of the wastewater
treatment facility without adding any tankage or expanding the plant’s
physical footprint. BioMag is a relatively new process that enhances
biological treatment systems by using magnetite to ballast, or weigh
down, the biological floc. With a specific gravity of 5.2 and a strong
affinity for biological solids, magnetite substantially increases the
settling rate of the biomass, thereby overcoming the bottleneck in the
secondary clarifier. Increasing settling rates of the biological floc
provides the opportunity to increase mixed liquor suspended solids
(MLSS) concentrations and treat increased hydraulic flows and loadings.
The paper discusses the design, implementation, and results of the
treatment plant upgrade, including adding the BioMag process and
upgrading the nitrogen removal processes.
Brandon M. Mayes received a B.S. degree in biological sciences from
York College of Pennsylvania. He began working for Long Trail Brewing
Company in Bridgewater Corners, VT, in 2006 as the assistant quality
assurance manager. Brandon is a licensed wastewater and public water
systems operator with the state of Vermont. Long Trail Brewing Company
is a regional brewery producing approx. 80,000 bbl of beer annually and
operates an activated sludge wastewater treatment facility to treat its
high-strength brewery waste.
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