tce WATER TREATMENT

2010 AD
Advanced digestion
W
ATER treament companies under Stage Retention Temperature
increasing pressure to reduce time
technologies have come their greenhouse gas emissions.
1 2 days 38C
of age, say Alex Bjorn In the UK, for example, the government
has pledged an 80% cut by 2050. Whilst 2 2 days 42C
and Robert Wild reducing water consumption and leakage can 3 2.5 days 38C
make some savings, these alone will not be 4 2.5 days 42C
enough for the industry to align itself even
remotely with this target, major investment in Table 1: Details of optimisation stages
innovation and new technologies is needed. discussed in this report
A number of advanced digestion (AD)
processes have been developed over the last This resulted in the decision to design and
30 years, of which the application of acid build a full-scale development plant, which
phase digestion (APD) to sewage sludge is was completed and commissioned early 2009.
perhaps the simplest. Since then the plant has undergone a
programme of optimisation, testing various
APD at Derby configurations. Table 1 shows the results
After initially gaining in popularity in the of the first part of this programme: testing
US and Europe, APD and variants became retention time and operating temperature in
increasingly common in the UK, with a parallel mode (ie when raw sludge is pumped
number of proprietary systems dominating into both APD tanks simultaneously and
the market. The first APD plant to be spends the whole retention time in one of the
designed and built by a UK water company two tanks).
started up at Thames Waters Swindon
sewage treatment works (STW) in 2003. The so far so good
Swindon APD unit consists of a single APD When assessing the performance of a
reactor upstream of the existing traditional digestion plant, measuring one parameter
digesters. The plant was a direct predecessor rarely gives an accurate picture, so the
to another APD unit which was more recently team measured several parameters, using
installed at Severn Trent Waters Derby STW. on-line data logging, laboratory analysis and
In 2006 Severn Trent Water began operational data gathering.
feasibility work on retrofitting APD into the A key indicator of APD performance is
existing sludge treatment stream at Derby, the production of volatile fatty acids (VFAs)
treating the sewage of around 450,000 people. through the APD stage. Figure 1 shows

APD performance indicators volatile fatty acids (VFA) and volatile

solids destruction (VFD)
8000 60
Average volatile solids destruction (%)

7000
50
Average VFA concentration

6000
40
in MAD feed (mg/l)

5000

4000 30

3000
20
2000
10
1000

0 0
P. 38C 2 d P. 42C 2 d P. 38C 2.5 d P. 42C 2 d 1. 38C 2 d 2. 42C 2 d 3. 38C 2.5 d 4. 42C 2 d

n Average APD VFA production Optimisation stage n Average VSD Optimisation stage
n Average thickened sludge VFAs Benchmark 2006

Figure 1: Average VFA concentration in MAD feed for each of the Figure 2: The average overall VSD of APD+MAD against
optimisation stages, showing the extent of VFA production in the the 2006 benchmark for each of the optimization stages
APD process

40 www.tcetoday.com november 2010


AD anaerobic
digestion
Anaerobic digestion stabilises and
reduces pathogen content of sewage
sludge. Traditionally, sludge is pumped
into an air-tight tank, mixed, and left
to digest for at least 12 days, where
anaerobic micro-organisms carry out
the three digestion stages:
hydrolysis breaks down complex
organic materials proteins, fats and
carbohydrates into mostly soluble
organic molecules such as amino
acids, sugars, etc;
acidogenesis further breaks these
down to volatile fatty acids; and
methanogenesis converts ~60% of
these products into methane. The rest
is turned into other gasses and water.
During the 1990s, significant efforts
were made to harness the methane-
rich biogas through combined heat
and power (CHP) units, which are now
integral parts of digestion plants.
acid phase
APD
digestion
The first two stages of AD are carried
out by groups of bacteria that are
different to those responsible for
methanogenesis. Bacteria responsible
for hydrolysis and acidogenesis prefer
a shorter retention time (due to their
faster growth rate) and a lower pH (~pH
5) than the methanogenic bacteria
(~pH 7.5).
Hydrolysis is considered to be the
rate-limiting step in sewage sludge
AD, especially when it comes to
the waste activated sludge portion.
Sewage sludge is high in bacterial
cells where much of the digestible
organic matter is enclosed within the
tough cell membrane. By physically
separating out the two stages, into
first acid phase digestion and then
gas phase digestion, water treatment
plant operators can provide optimal
conditions for both cultures of bacteria.
This increases efficiency overall and
also the conversion of sludge solids
into biogas. As a result, the energy
yield from the process increases and
the amount of sludge solids that are
passed forward for further treatment
and reuse is reduced.
APD lends itself to retrofit solutions
as it is a stand-alone process that can
be built and brought on-line without
major disruption to existing critical
digester assets. Additional benefits
include higher digester loading rates
(and therefore small, cheaper plants
overall), and potentially improved
pathogen treatment.
the percentage VFA production in APD.
Stage 1 resulted in the highest average VFA
production in APD, a 106% increase in feed
levels.
Another performance indicator is volatile
solids destruction (VSD). Compared with a
pre-established benchmark of 36.5% VSD (for
a traditional digester), Figure 2 shows that
APD raised Stage 1 VSD levels to 50.2%.
Finally, on-line gas flow meters on the
digesters showed the greatest gas production
during Stage 1 of the optimisation trials
(although flow meter data are notoriously
unreliable on anaerobic digesters). Energy
production associated with this gas is key in
assessing the effect of APD on the digestion
system, as increased revenue was the business
driver. Again Stage 1 showed the greatest
increase in energy production, compared with
the pre-APD benchmark of 18%.
money matters
The additional energy produced thanks to
APD has made Derby STW intermittently
self sufficient in energy for the first time
sometimes a couple of times a month.
The additional energy could be worth up to
115k/y ($182k/y). On top of this, additional
renewable energy production makes the STW
eligible for payments under the renewable
obligation credits (ROCs) scheme. Stage 1
performance suggests that this additional
ROC income could come to 70k/y.
As well as extra energy recovery, improved
VSD cuts sludge handling costs. We estimate
that better VSD results in 1500t/y less dry
solids to dewater and re-use, or around 5400
m3 of sludge cake. For disposal at 30/m3, this
represents a saving of 160k/y.
While installing APD has resulted in extra
pumping and mixing costs (around 40k/y),
we expect operational expenditure savings to
be worth up to 305k/y.
Further testing at Derby is underway, with
the plant in series mode, which is a closer
approximation to the multi-tank proprietary
systems. Initial indications suggest further
CAREERS
WATER TREATMENT tce
improvements in gas and energy production.
AD: the future
Across the UK, at least, advanced digestion
will continue to grow in popularity in the
foreseeable future, as water companies look to
make best use of their assets and maximise all
income streams.
Currently the simpler AD technologies
(such as APD) are being used to reduce
energy consumption and increase income
from what was once considered a problematic
by-product of the wastewater treatment
process, and helping water companies to
reach their emissions reduction targets.
However, further into the future the
industry faces another challenge. Currently
the vast majority of sludge cake is recycled
to land, but as the UK population increases
significantly, less land will be available to
receive cake. As this becomes an issue there
will be a shift to more complicated advanced
digestion technologies that result in a Class
A cake product and a greater reduction in
sludge solids for re-use. These processes, such
as enhanced enzymic hydrolysis, incorporate
high temperature or high pressure treatment
(or both) to further improve the pathogen kill
count, opening up further application routes
and therefore available land, for the re-use of
the cake product.
The irony is that these processes are
much more energy intensive, and instead of
providing a surplus of energy they are likely
to represent a power and heat drain. So the
vogues in adopted technology will evolve as
our social priorities and treatment objectives
shift, as they always have.
Either way, AD technologies will
undoubtedly play a part in our attempts to
meet current and future challenges. tce
Alex Bjorn (alex.bjorn@atkinsglobal.com)
is a process engineer at Atkins; Robert
Wild is a senior process engineer at
Severn Trent Water
november 2010 www.tcetoday.com 41