The applicability of microsieve technology together with coagulation and flocculation for advanced phosphorus removal was investigated. A pilot unit including a microsieve with 10 μm mesh size was operated continuously with secondary effluent from Ruhleben wastewater treatment plant in Berlin. By applying a pretreatment of 0.07-0.09 mmol/L (as metal) coagulant and 1.5-2 mg/L cationic polymer, total phosphorus values below 80 μg/L were achieved. Coagulation with polyaluminum chloride (PACl) produced a better effluent quality compared to FeCl, as less suspended solids and less residual coagulant were found in the microsieve effluent. In addition, the transmittance of UV radiation through the water was improved by using PACl. The produced amount of backwash water was always below 3% (on average 1.6%). Under optimized mixing conditions, polymer doses of 0.6 mg/L were possible without losses in water quality and filtration performance. Microsieving with chemical pretreatment is a viable option for high quality effluent polishing.
Primary and chemically enhanced primary wastewater treatment with microsieving (disc or drum filtration) was studied at the large pilot scale at seven municipal wastewater treatment plants in Europe. Without chemical dosing, the reduction of suspended solids (SS) was (on average) 50% (20-65%). By introducing chemically enhanced primary treatment and dosing with cationic polymer only, SS removal could be controlled and increased to >80%. A maximum SS removal of >90% was achieved with a chemical dosing of >0.007 mg polymer/mg influent SS and 20 mg Al(3+)/L or 30 mg Fe(3+)/L. When comparing sieve pore sizes of 30-40 μm with 100 μm, the effluent SS was comparable, indicating that the larger sieve pore size could be used due to the higher loading capacity for the solids. Phosphorus removal was adjusted with the coagulant dose, and a removal of 95-97% was achieved. Moreover, microsieving offers favourable conditions for automated dosing control due to the low retention time in the filter.
At a full-scale wastewater treatment plant, raw municipal wastewater from the sand trap outlet was mechanically and physicochemically pre-treated before microfiltration (MF) in a large pilot-scale study. MF was performed using a low transmembrane pressure (0.03 bar) without backflushing for up to 159 h (∼6.6 d). Pre-filtration ensured stable MF operation compared with the direct application of raw wastewater on the membrane. The combination of physicochemical pre-treatment, such as coagulation, flocculation, and microsieving, with MF meets the European and Swedish discharge limits for small- and medium-sized wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The specific electricity footprint was 0.3-0.4 kWh·m, which is an improvement compared to the median footprint of 0.75 kWh·m found in 105 traditional Swedish WWTPs with sizes of 1500-10,000 person equivalents. Furthermore, the biological treatment step can be omitted, and the risk of releasing greenhouse gases was eliminated. The investigated wastewater treatment process required less space than conventional wastewater treatment processes, and more carbon was made available for biogas production.
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