Modicifations to Sewage Sludge Digesters to handle industrial intermediates

Environmental Biotechnology Limited (EBL) formed part of a team to address problems of foaming in sludge digesters at Marley Sewage Treatment Works, Yorkshire. Severe foaming was attributed to chemical intermediates from the textile industry discharged to the works which resulted in foam entering the digester pipework.

This resulted in significant downtime and high maintenance costs. It was not possible to locate the source of the foaming agent due to the large variety of industrial effluent streams entering the site and the complex biomolecular intermediates formed. To address the foaming problem directly, EBL staff designed a novel antifoaming device which was fabricated locally. One unit was installed "live" with the digester still in operation and this proved very successful. Additional units were installed on the remaining digesters on site. Fully automated, the system resulted in considerable savings in labour, maintenance, and downtime, with minimal operating cost. Foaming no longer presents a problem at this site.

 

Novel Antifoam units