Integrated solutions for wastewater treatment

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Biower Oy

www.biower.com

Biower supplies total solutions for biogas and wastewater treatment plants, covering feasibility studies, turnkey deliveries, and life cycle services. The technology used is based on field-proven, reliable innovations that offer real-life benefits to communities worldwide.

The Kompogas dry fermentation process used by Biower in its biogas solutions offers uniform biomass decomposition and a stable gas flow for generating electricity and heat or producing motor fuels, and results in a digestate that can be used as an excellent fertiliser.

Biowaste obtained from a wide variety of sources can be used as input, including municipal waste and waste from agriculture and the food industry. Reactors can be retrofitted to existing compost plants very easily to boost their operating efficiency, opening up even more application opportunities.

Thanks to a high fill ratio, Biower’s reactors contain a large amount of bacteria, which means that purification takes place much faster than in conventional methods and also reduces space needs. Problem substances such as phenols, formaldehydes, isocyanate, cyanide, acetone, MTBE, and hydrocarbons can also be handled.

In the wastewater treatment area, Biower’s solutions make use of advanced specialised bacteria and flotation technology that enable a wide range of effluent to be handled. They offer extremely low energy consumption and are very compact compared to conventional processes. Thanks to their modular construction, units are equally suitable for both small and large installations, ranging from individual residential buildings to industrial plants and entire urban areas.

Decentralised treatment

Biower’s modular, scalable technology is suitable for many different applications, such as villages, industry, laundries, and spas. Communities of 50-2,000 people and hotels are typical customers. Built from a number of compact modules, plants are supplied pre-installed in sea containers. Only sedimentation tanks normally need to be buried, and can be installed above-ground as well.

Plants are highly reliable and can deal with large fluctuations in flow volume because the bacteria used are tightly fixed onto the carrier surface and cannot be flushed off. Operations are also unaffected by long-term shutdowns, as bacteria are sustained by internal water circulation and can survive even a cold winter.

A new type of bioreactor

Biower’s innovative wastewater treatment technology is based on a Clewer Rotating Bed (RB) bioreactor, fitted with carrier elements for the specialised bacteria used to decompose chemicals and other impurities. The carrier elements are rotated continuously to maintain a steady oxygen supply and keep them clean at all times. After passing through a sedimentation tank to remove phosphorus, effluent enters an initial bioreactor, which uses oxygen-free denitrification to release chemically bound nitrogen. A second bioreactor removes carbon compounds and converts them into water and CO₂ and initiates the oxygenation of nitrogen compounds, which continues in a third bioreactor. A mechanical clarifier concludes the process.

Compared to moving beds, RB bioreactors offer unbeatable efficiency and use as little as 10% of the energy conventional technology needs. Space use is also very efficient, as RB reactors take up a fraction of the space required by activated sludge and carrierbased processes.

> Kari Vanhalakka

(Published in HighTech Finland 2010)