Our company developed a ...

Our company developed a bioreactor treatment scheme for formaldehyde wastewater at an adhesives manufacturing plant in suburban Boston, Massachusetts. Key to the process was developing a consortia of bacteria that had an affinity for formaldehyde. We worked with a bacteriologist, Dr. Ned Barden PhD who was able to isolate and culture a bacteria he calls FormaldeBac. specific to the wastestream. This was added to a bioreactor that used a venturi aerator capable of adding requisite dissolved oxygen while stripping CO2 to maintain a neutral pH and using the kinetic energy of the discharge for mixing and equalization in a 3,000 gallon tank. A packing media was added to the tank in poly bags to allow formation of CFU on a high surface substrate media. Treatment was on a daily batch basis and had filter bags and an activated carbon canister for polishing to ensure permit compliance with a local MWRA discharge permit.