Wastewater treatment and purification

The issue of waste water

Protecting the environment from sewage discharges is an issue that is becoming increasingly prominent in Italy. For years, there has been discussion about ways to tackle and prevent this troublesome urban nuisance.

All social, industrial and recreational activities use large quantities of water, which is then discharged back into the environment.

In the past, this process did not cause any problems, as urban waste water consisted almost exclusively of biodegradable substances. However, this is no longer the case, and the water must now undergo treatment to remove the increasingly widespread presence of synthetic chemical compounds.

It is therefore clear that there is a need to treat waste water using treatment systems that mimic the biological processes that occur naturally in bodies of water.

This issue arises both in domestic drainage systems and in various commercial establishments, such as restaurants, bars and others.

What is meant by ‘wastewater’?

The category of waste water includes all water which, after having been used in domestic and/or industrial contexts, must undergo treatment before being discharged back into the environment or reused.

Types of wastewater treatment

There are various types and levels of wastewater treatment, namely: preliminary treatment, primary treatment, secondary treatment and tertiary treatment.

In general, it is worth bearing in mind that where there is a very high bacterial load at the end of any wastewater treatment process, it is advisable to carry out a disinfection treatment (Legislative Decree 152/99).

PRELIMINARY TREATMENTS

These treatments are carried out to remove from the wastewater all solid substances that could cause problems for sewage treatment plants, such as: debris, sand, scum, fats, oils and hydrocarbons.

PRIMARY TREATMENTS

Primary treatment is carried out to remove the total suspended solids present in the sewage. As this material is organic, it is separated by the aggregation of the suspended particles and their subsequent sedimentation.

In practice, the sewage is channelled into special sedimentation tanks.

SECONDARY TREATMENTS

Secondary treatment processes are the best solution when physical treatment is not possible (as they cannot be settled), given that the substances to be removed are either biodegradable organic matter or solid particles in colloidal form.

The secondary processes implemented for the treatment of waste water are:

aerobic systems, i.e. those that use aerobic bacteria fed with organic matter and stimulated by oxygen. The treatment plants used may be biological active sludge systems or biological total oxidation systems.
anaerobic in nature, that is, based on the use of bacteria that feed on organic matter and are capable of living without oxygen.

TERTIARY TREATMENTS

Tertiary treatment is carried out to remove those substances that are not readily biodegradable and are not broken down by secondary treatment.

The main aim of these water treatment processes is to reduce the levels of phosphorus, nitrogen and other nutrients present in the water.

When these nutrients are present in significant quantities, they encourage the growth of algae: increased bacterial activity leads to greater oxygen consumption, which in turn causes fish to die.

In the absence of oxygen, aerobic microorganisms are replaced by anaerobic ones, which produce gases and toxic substances with an unpleasant odour.

BEA’s proposal for the treatment of domestic wastewater

In the case of domestic wastewater – that is, wastewater produced by private households or similar establishments (restaurants, hotels or farm holiday accommodation), B.E.A. offers cutting-edge solutions and technologies that prove to be extremely efficient even for users with seasonal or intermittent usage, which are difficult to treat using traditional systems.

The products we offer ensure highly efficient water treatment, enabling the treated water to be reused for irrigation and transforming it into a valuable resource.

Micro-organisms play a key role in this purification process.

To date, freeze-dried microorganisms have been used; these must be rehydrated before use, which causes serious problems in terms of stress and efficacy.

BEA has instead developed a liquid enzymatic-bacterial preparation, marketed under the name BIOSINERZIM, which contains enzymes and microbial colonies comprising multiple bacterial species, ready for immediate use and capable of multiplying the pollution-removal efficiency through their synergistic action.

The organo-mineral product consists of a mixture of bacteria and enzymes (lipase, protease, amylase, chitinase, cellulase, etc.) supported by naturally occurring polymeric units.

This enzyme-bacterial complex regulates and accelerates the purification processes, whilst reducing the emission of foul-smelling gases.

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A wide range of applications

The product developed by Bea Srl has a number of potential applications in wastewater treatment and also enables:

a rapid start-up of activated sludge treatment plants
the treatment of domestic and certain industrial effluents, such as those originating from:
- textile industry
- tanning industry
- oil industry
- paper industry
- cosmetics industry
- timber industry
- the agri-food industry (distilleries, oil mills, butchers, dairies, cured meat producers, canning factories, etc.)
the increase in the efficiency of biological treatment plants
rapid breakdown of surfactants and, consequently, of the foam

Furthermore:

helps to significantly control unpleasant odours
It also helps to improve the treatment efficiency of the lagoons
speeds up biological processes in drainage wells and septic tanks
avoid stressful situations caused by sudden increases in workload

The benefits of the treatment

Wastewater treatment with BIOSINERZIM enables rapid, effective and long-lasting results. It also exerts a powerful denitrification effect, leading to significant energy savings. In fact, it operates with high efficiency even in the presence of very little dissolved oxygen (0.2 mg/l).

In conclusion, the use of liquid enzymatic-bacterial preparations with a broad spectrum of action is recommended where applications need to be carried out in the presence of phenols, oils, fats and hydrocarbons in general, foams, soaps, anionic, cationic and non-ionic surfactants, food-grade cellulose, lignin, hydrogen sulphide, animal and vegetable fat deposits, stressful conditions caused by unexpected discharges and/or low temperatures, waste water from company canteens, foul odours, or excessive proliferation of Nocardia.

>> See the recommended dosages on the Biosinerzim product