Grease Removal in Lift Stations

Grease control and lift station maintenance

Lift stations are notorious for filling up with debris, solids and tons of grease. The grease can become hard, form a shelf or ledge, or if too much, almost create a solid layer.  By using bacterial products to clean the grease, a long term solution is established for the lift station. The bacteria also benefit the pipes downstream as well as the wastewater treatment plant.

The bacteria actually consume the grease as a food source and permanently remove the grease.  Low maintenance dosages can then be used to keep the grease from building up and causing future problems.

This is a 5 Million Gallon a Day lift station that was filled with years of grease build-up.

There were thick solids build up in the corners and all throughout the various tanks.

Here is how it looks now after using bacterial products to degrade the grease.

Except for a little bit of solids in the upper left corner, most of the grease and solids build-up are gone. Here is the upper right corner- clean and free flowing water as opposed to the above picture prior to addition of our biological products. The grease ledge is gone, the solids and chucks of grease are dissolved and there is circulation of water  and better mixing.  Bacteria are used to slowly degrade the grease and solids build up as opposed to chemicals that send grease down the collections system and to the wastewater treatment plant.

Find out how you can start your Grease Removal Program today or email us

Texas Barbecue Restaurant and Package plant

Before and After Bioaugmentation

We were asked to help with foaming and grease problems at a small package plant that handled wastewater from a Texas Barbecue Restaurant.

A dual program using liquid concentrated product upstream at the restaurant in the wet wells and using dried bacteria and micronutrients at the wastewater treatment plant eliminated all of the foaming problems.

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Tank Remediation at a Petrochemical Plant

We are working with a Petrochemical plant down in Louisiana. They had an 800,000 gallon tank filled with wastewater that they wanted to clean up and empty out. We suggested a biological program-MicroSolv 400 for tank remediation.

The plant started the program and had the tank cleaned up in less than three weeks, yet the tank had been sitting there filled for over three years. They were tremendously impressed. They would have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to haul out the waste.

Tank remediation is not really that hard. As long as the contents are organic, it is actually quite simple. To the bacteria, it is just food. Since the waste stream is already isolated, it becomes just a time and numbers game with the right species of bacteria. Inoculate the tank with bacteria, make sure the critical 5 are in place- (pH, D.O., temperature, N and P) and watch them go to work!

It does not really take long depending upon how much you seed the tank with. And the bacteria grow and multiply exponentially, so just sit back and wait. You wind up with a clean tank, clear effluent, and some bacteria residuals on the bottom of the tank that need to be disposed of- ( usually sent to the plants onsite dewatering system) or land applied.

Operator training, System optimization- Dairy processing wastewater treatment plant

Audit Case History at a Dairy processing plant- Milk and Yogurt

This plant did not have too many problems running, but the SVI's were a bit high and they did spend a bit on polymer to dewater sludge. Solids handling were limited during the winter, due to the fact that land application of the sludge was required.
We walked through the plant, made suggestions on solids levels in the clarifiers. We looked under the microscope. They had a ton of filaments, Type 021N. We looked at their plant data. They did not add sufficient Nitrogen to the plant. They would get slugs of high BOD influent periodically. We recommended that they increase daily supplements of Nitrogen and when spills came through, "spill some nutrients also"!! The biggest problem people have with nutrients is dosing and trying to be conservative.

This plant did what we recommended though. The biggest benefit was the settling to the clarifier in the cold months. The 1/2 hour SVI had over a 62% reduction from 740 ml in the settleometer down to 280! This made a difference in solids handling also! What a simple fix, just add nutrients!!!!!!

Nutrient Optimization-How important are nutrients

Winery Start-up of a new wastewater plant

We were asked to provide products for a brand new winery start-up. We started them on a dual program with bacterial product- MicroClear 206 and MicroClear M100- micronutrients. The plant was supposed to have an influent of 8000 COD, but some days, it got as high as 16,000. We were able to get them down to 100 ppm or less.

By using biological products, you can shorten the time for start-ups and increase the MLSS and get the plant up and running quickly.

There are things to watch when starting up a plant though, as serious white foaming can be a problem and levels must be monitored.

Holding tank- Bioaugmentation treatment program in Pakistan

Capacity 1m3/Hr

pH 2.8

Temperature 90-95 degree c

Acetaldehyde 2300ppm

EG (mono-ethylene glycol) 150000ppm

2,methyle 1-1, 3 dioxane 260ppm

Dioxane 140ppm

Acetic Acid 110ppm

COD varies from 20000ppm to 30000ppm

Target COD is 10000ppm.

This tank has two sections, with approximate holding time of 55 hours. Its pH is adjusted by using caustic to the range pH 7.0. And temperature is also lowered by air stripping before hanging the brick. This also helps to remove VOC’s from the wastewater. . The retention time of the tank is about 55 hours.

Influent COD was 39000 at the start. After hanging Biobricks in the system, effluent COD was 19200 for the outlet in only 24 hours, a reduction of 51%. Nutrients were not added until the second day, and the effluent dropped again to 15380. Third day- 13000 from a start of 3900 in a tank in such a short time!!!!.

Additional pH adjustment and mixing, along with nutrient additions were recommended, but for first time results, this is actually quite amazing!

Soil Remediation Case History

Industrial Zone Alon Tavor Israel

Plant Issues
900 m3 of Contaminated Soil.
Pollution: Crude oil.
Several option where evaluated and E. H. Green/Environmental Leverage bioaugmentation program solution was elected.
Due to the Hydrologic Area which the plant is located in ,the EPA of Israel instructed the plant to move the soil or reduce the TPH ( Total petroleum Hydrocarbons) from 842 to 100 ppm. Initial proposal assumed that it would take a few months due to high heat in the summer, and mainly the amount of soil and contamination to treat. After two weeks, TPH was down to 311, the following week, 133.
Final TPH levels were pulled at 4 locations- 38, 39,81 and 37 were the final TPH readings, ~90-95.6% reduction in TPH ( Total petroleum Hydrocarbons)
80% cost reduction in treating the soil biologically including labor, nutrients, biological products, etc vs. hauling out the dirt as hazardous waste~
Soil Remediation Case History- Total Petroleum Hydrocarbons
 

If you have an activated sludge plant, many times minor process changes coupled with close monitor and control of the biomass can help quicken upset recovery or just increase process efficiency. Not all plants need biological additives. Some just need to improve the "critical 5" parameters.

But some plants have constantly changing influents.  No matter how great a control they have, their biomass is in constant flux.  Sometimes adding a biological product or micronutrients can help stabilize and increase the efficiency of the biomass.

Click on this link for our MicroClear & MicroSolv bacterial product line catalog.

Bioaugmentation Benefits

Key Benefits

• Increased BOD and TSS removal
• Reduction in polymer consumption
• Decreased environmental liabilities
• Increase in system reliability and efficiency
• Increased Sludge Reduction/Reduced solids handling costs

Biological Products by Application

• Activated Sludge systems
• Ammonia cultures for nitrification
• Bioblocks  for lift stations and hard to reach spots
• Collection System-Sewer and Drain Cultures
• Micronutrients
• Grease Control & Liftstation Maintenance
• Lagoons
• Lake, pond and river remediation
• Additional Products and formulations

**Bioaugmentation Programs include technical support, computer based training and long term programs include occasional complimentary Wastewater Biomass Analyses of your system.

Links to Additional Troublehsooting Pages

For More information on Products:

Biological Products, Descriptions,  Usage and Applications

Wastewater Case Histories

Biological Products for use in Wastewater Applications for Bioengineering and Bioaugmentation

Biological Wastewater Treatment Products

How are your bugs doing?
Filamentous Identification Training class
Filamentous Identification The Easy Way- Training Program CD
Wastewater Biomass Analyses Brochure
The Most Comprehensive Filamentous Bacteria Training Program you will find
Sample Case History
More information
Additional training Materials

New Plant Start-ups

Wastewater Training Classes

Wastewater Training CD's