We are working on a major project to improve the Sewage Treatment Plants (STP) in Hyderabad, India.
Most of the STP' s are old and built in the late 80s. I'm looking for ways to upgrade these existing plants to more advanced but affordable technology so that they use less energy and become more efficient, have lower installation and maintenance costs and require less land.
Has anyone worked on upgrading old STPs with advanced technologies? Please share your suggestions and experiences.
you need to undertake a very detailed Techanical audit to clearly assess design, construction (including modifications if any), updated service conditions and your targets. Only at this stage you will be in position to talk about technology.
Have over 30 years of hands-on experience in upgrading and optimizing WWTP's, for both domestic and industrial wastewater. Can contact me gerdteunissen@interagua.pt , willing to visit with you.
Anish, You first need to get someone who knows what they are doing to represent you as client. Other wise you will get everyone trying to SELL you their solution regardless of outcome. Suggest you contact the expert in Chennai - Dr S Sundaramoorthy on (0091) 94440 52434.
We are based in Indonesia and I believe that many users are facing your difficulties. Many STP are old, their maintenance has been overlooked for years and owners face now critical challenges to meet at same time new regulations and fair return on investment. We have been involved retrofitting several STP over the last 5 years and indeed the task is not easy, when most drawings have disappear, specs and SOP totally neglected, breakdowns not recorded... If you do not have the budget to replace your failing STP, the common starting point is that you need to undertake a very detailed audit to clearly assess design, construction (including modifications if any), updated service conditions and your targets. Only at this stage you will be in position to talk about technology. We could communicate more in detail if you like. Do not forget to include in your financial calculations, the ongoing maintenance contract, the missing income from poor production, the potential fines from government, the energy impact ...
Dear anish abhishek , concerning Nereda technology, you can also consult Wabag as a local supplier. If you have more than 5 m of water depth in the existing tanks, you can have some good chances to use this technology.
Could you please let me know the STP's which need improvement? As far as I know there are no old STP's in Hyderabad Most of them are built after 2000 and are tertiary level treatment plants, One old STP was also upgraded long back.
Yes Zafferullah, most of them are built after 2000...but the major part is still "old-fashioned". Many Contractors still provide ditch and extended aeration biological plants, though cheaper and more advantageous Technologies are available ever since... The fact is that You are right. Regards
There are a myriad of options available for upgrading, if you can provide a little more info on plant flow rates and effluent qualities now and after the upgrade we can suggest a few methods.
A packaged upgrade these days is normally the most effective cost and process option as it removes the need for large civil works ( not in all cases mind you), provided some of the existing infrastructure can be reused successfully.
Hi Anish, We can offer you technology as well as funds for upgradation of your STP. With our systems you can expand your project to the tune of 3X to-5X within the existing land. We prefer communicaiton on info@aeolusbioenergy.com with all details of your exisitng infrastructure.
Anish, see our web site www.biodaf.com, you will see a lot of information that can give you a good idea what we can do for your project, if you like it we will need information ofn existing infraestructure of the WWTP, analisys of the influent water, and quality or standard you need in the treated water. See our video collection, hame my best
Such questions can not be answered without knowing the technology background of the person who will read the answer. Are you a waste water treatment specialist? On this forum different people will offer you different answers. Are you competent to compare and evaluate them? Your Q says "We are working . . . ", who is "we"? A water treatment company? An NGO?
I would strongly encourage you to seek out an experienced engineering consultant who has worked in India or other similar environments in addition to having extensive experience upgrading wastewater treatment facilities. I would strongly encourage you to NOT hire a manufacturer of engineering technology without doing a broad survey of possible technologies by an unbiased engineer. Your engineer will need to review the status of the existing facilities, identify capacity needs and then compare alternative strategies for upgrade. Working with a single manufacturer from the start may seem like the most efficient way to proceed, but it will almost certainly lead you only to that manufacturer's technology. That may not be the most sustainable result for your facilities. Remember the experience of the Ganga Action Project where one country's technologies were applied because that country had provided the funds for the upgrade. The result was inappropriate technology which did not solve the massive problem of Ganga pollution. It is important that your evaluation be unbiased by commercial interest and be done by an engineer with truly wide experience in the industry and with facilities like yours.
Anish, I am going to seem to go against my advice here. After looking at your flow sheet, the one process that I would be looking at for upgrade of your facilities would be a granular activated sludge process. This was developed by Mark Van Loosdrecht at Delft. (http://www.tudelft.nl/en/current/latest-news/article/detail/mark-van-loosdrecht-wint-lee-kuan-yew-water-prize-2012/). But you should also be looking at more conventional processes, like activated sludge or improved separation technology. Do this with the help of an experienced engineer who is familiar with recent world-wide trends. Mark would be a good person to contact to get started. Best regards, Randal Samstag
Anish, I didn't notice the image files attached to your post when I first replied. Your files indicate that you have "claritube" settlers for sludge separation from a fixed film system of some kind. This could well be one of the sources of your problem. These have been very aggressively designed in the past by manufacturers of these devices. I have designed lamella separators for a client in the distant past, based on manufacturer's recommendations. I wish that I hadn't. Subsequent work that my colleagues and I have done using computational fluid dynamics analysis indicates that these types of devices can fail at rates significantly lower than the aggressive rates often mentioned by manufacturers and textbooks. This makes me even more concerned that you not put your faith in one manufacturer, but in an engineering advisor with wide experience and knowledge. I see dozens of comments by manufacturers here. It is fine to be aware of these, but I strongly advise that you not follow their advice prior to doing an unbiased study by an experienced and knowledgeable engineer. The EPA document posted above is a good place to start. EPA hasn't done any really significant research in wastewater treatment since 1980. You really need to seek out the advice of an experienced engineer. Best wishes, Randal Samstag
Anish, I must agree with the recommendations and sentiments expressed by Randal above. We have some technology in South Africa which could be applicable, however, with no experience of working in India, I cannot say for sure. Please consider including us in the objective comparative of available systems and technologies.
Wastewater Wizard will be visiting Delhi's Water India 2017 exhibition 2 - 4th February at the Pragati Maidan. As well as looking for potential Indian partners (primarily with a civil engineering background) we would be more than happy to provide solutions to existing sites. Our Wizard technology uses vermifiltration (using worms to treat wastewater), delivering a performance on par with existing biological systems but using 75% less energy. Please PM me if you would like more details or even better arrange a meeting whilst we are in Delhi.
Dear Anish, friends in the Czech Republic have developed and implemented their USBF technology (Upflow Sludge Blanket Filtration) for the last 25 years and very often the objective is the upgrade of an existing WWTP. They have a reference in India realized with a Tata - Company five years ago. Please write me in an email to put you in touch with our partners in the Czech Republic, we for our part focus on the Mexican market. My email is marc.wehmeijer@think-tim.mx
Dear Anish, please write an E-Mail to me. We have a technology witch allows to work with the existing technic, with lower cost and more efficiency. info@baleari.de Sincerly yours Heidi
Hi Anish. A treatment process that is low cost, low footprint, low carbon is the Kaldnes process. It is highly user configurable to most types of wastewater. I managed a works with 24 large filters (area of a football pitch) and all these have been replaced by one Kaldnes tower (area of a double garage). Hope this helps you.
There is some unique technology that we are incorporating for upgrading existing wastewater treatment facilities for India.
We are an Indian company possessing technology that addresses the cost center concept of old sewage treatment plants. Most plants are heavy consumers of electricity, calling for expensive CAPEX upgrade + OPEX operating expenditure of O&M.
The major problem with sewage treatment plants is that as the O&M expenses are huge, water utilities find it hard to make ends meet and therefore I call them cost centers.
With our MAST technology wastewater treatment plants we use very little energy and in the process we are net energy producers.
Our plants produce their own electricity to operate pumps and equipments on the sewage treatment process.
Our MAST technology (Microbe Algae Sewage Treatment) plants operate on the principle of super saturated oxygen provided by the microalgae. The MAST technology only requires 3 variable inputs, firstly nutrients found naturally in the sewage wastewater, carbon dioxide that is provided by the microbes as well as the carbon dioxide available from the atmosphere and lastly sunlight.
Our MAST Technology wastewater treatment plants are carbon negative as they work on drawing carbon dioxide from the air as well as the microbes in the wastewater. There is a symbiotic relationship between the microbe and algae. While the algae provides oxygen to the microbes to grow and multiply so that the wastewater can be treated the microbes give out carbon dioxide that is taken up by the algae.
The algae biomass that is harvested is then extracted for carbohydrates and lipids, thus giving you Acetone, Butanol, Ethanol, Methanol etc from the carbohydrates and Biodiesel from the lipids.
The tertiary treated wastewater is recycled and reused for agriculture, industry and commercial buildings for washing, mopping, flushing and gardening thus reducing the water stress.
We assist not only in the upgrade but provide policy thrust and advice to the state government as well and how best to utilize the resource.
We are right now going through the process of negotiating a sewage treatment facility at Gujarat for an upgrade to the new CPHEEO guidelines of BOD5 being less than 10 mg/liter.
In case of land footprint we require land but we also provide solutions to pump the wastewater out of city limits where land is available and then to set up the facility to take advantage of a low energy technology to treat the wastewater.
You can get in touch with me at advenvtech@gmail.com or reach me at 09821550316.