Application to a wastewater treatment plant

Prior to FBF Organics treating the system, the ponds had been neglected and the anaerobic as well as the primary facultative ponds had an accumulation of sewage waste. The Municipality recognised that the ponds were organically overloaded and as a consequence the performance of the plant was unsatisfactory. In order to improve the functioning of this plant FBF Organics installed a reactor at the pump station in March 2004 and the bio-activator introduced to the sewage stream in the last week of March 2004. WWTW Bio Activator improves the functioning of waste water treatment plants (WWTP). WWTW Bio Activator is comprised of organic molecules generated by bacterial fermentation. These molecules act on the existing bacteria in the ponds allowing facultative bacteria to out compete anaerobes for the substrate. Empirical observations have shown higher rates of organic degradation, increased metabolic rates, reduction in hydrogen sulphides and mercaptan production amongst others.
Starting in April 2004 water samples were collected each month from critical stages of the treatment process and submitted for analysis to Talbot laboratories (SANAS accreditation No. TO122). Results of these analysis are detailed below.

COD
Chemical oxygen demand (COD), which is defined as the quantity of oxygen used in biological and non-biological oxidation of materials in water, is often used as a rapid indicator of organic pollution in water. COD (filtered, settled and total) of the effluent (Figure 1-3) after the anaerobic pond has decreased significantly since the addition of BioActivator X256. This indicates that the capacity of this pond has greatly improved with the use of this product, which in turn impacts on the quality of effluent released from the final pond.

Figure 1. COD settled (mg/L) in the effluent coming out of the anaerobic pond.

Figure 2. Filtered COD (mg/L) of the effluent coming out of the anaerobic pond.

Figure 3. Total COD (mg/L) of the effluent coming out of the anaerobic pond.

Suspended solids
Total suspended solids (TSS) concentration is a measure of the amount of material suspended in water. The general limit applicable to the discharge of wastewater into a water resource is 25 mg/L (DWAF 2004). The concentration of suspended solids in the final effluent were below guideline limits in most months which is very promising as initially suspended solids were always above guideline limits.

Odours
Foul odours emanating from the sewage treatment ponds have progressively reduced and are now unnoticeable and we are not aware of complaints from the community.

Summary
In conclusion the introduction of WWTW Bio Activator into the sewage treatment ponds has improved the performance of the WWTP considerably, by greatly improving the performance of the anaerobic pond.