Dynatec News

Reuse Water with MBR

High-quality discharge and reuse from MBR

Dynatec Provides Reuse Water for Cereals Plant

Dynatec Systems, Inc. has installed a water reuse system in a major cereals plant in Georgia.

The complete treatment system, consisting of a membrane bioreactor (MBR), followed by reverse osmosis (RO), provides a net savings to the plant of more than $3,000 per day in water and sewer charges after deduction of the plant operating costs. The water is reused for cleaning, in scrubbers and in boilers.

Previously, the facility discharged all the wastewater to a municipal treatment plant at a rate of up to 0.5 mgd, and paid both volume and load charges

Quality Criteria

Since the plant produces a food product, ultimate water quality is vital. The two-stage membrane system (MBR + RO) and final sterilization with ultraviolet (UV) treatment provides the quality assurance that plant management requires. In addition, the membranes used in the MBR system are external to the aeration basin and are tubular. This type of membrane is much less susceptible to failure than the immersed type.

System Design

After a review of the available treatment options, the owners of the facility chose the Dynatec bioreactor option. This process combines aerated biological treatment with an out-of-basin ultrafiltration (UF) system. In combination with reverse osmosis treatment, Dynatec was able to provide the client with the necessary assurances that the water quality would not be compromised, and that the water would be suitable for process purposes, such as boiler feed water.

Dynatec’s design consisted of the following components:

• Internally fed rotary screen
• 500,000 gallon above-ground stainless steel equalization tank with jet aeration and duplex PD blowers
• 500,000 gallon above-ground stainless steel aerated biological reactor with jet aeration and triplex PD blowers
• Four membrane skids with a common automated CIP (clean-in-place) system, one skid operates in standby mode
• Reverse Osmosis system
• Final UV (ultraviolet) sterilization
• Sludge dewatering decanter centrifuge
• Completely integrated control system managing all system functions

System Advantages:

• The system provides many advantages for the operators and owners.
• Redundant membrane skids for ease of operation and cleaning.
• Simple automated cleaning operations with membranes in place.
• High mixed liquor concentration ensures the lowest possible sludge production, and requires smallest possible footprint.
• Simple, low maintenance system.
• Long-lasting tubular membranes with 0.03 μm membrane, ensuring removal of bacteria and viruses.

Results:

The system has produced high quality water for reuse. Consistently, the water quality from the MBR has been as follows:

State Award
The facility received an award from the State of Georgia Association of Water Professionals presented an award to the
facility for Outstanding Operation of a facility in the category of Water Conservation.

Project Conclusion:
The project was completed on time and within budget, and has exceeded the estimates that were initially made for cost savings.
The Dynatec system has proved to be reliable and efficient, and has exceeded the customer’s requirements, based on the initial
projected performance.

Technology Benefits

Biological treatment using Membrane Bioreactors provides several benefits:

• Consistently high-quality water
• No upsets, since the membrane provides a positive barrier to bacteria and viruses
• Smaller footprint than conventional systems, due to operation at high levels of mixed liquor
• Better system kinetics than conventional systems, due to long sludge age
• Complete removal of bacteria and viruses
• High quality water for reuse
• Dynatec Out-of-Basin MBR Systems:
• Operators never come in contact with biomass
• Easy clean-in-place without moving membranes

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/food-and-beverage/

Color Removal with Membranes

Color Removal with Membranes

Membranes selectively remove dissolved species from a variety of sources including:

• Surface water
• Rinse water from fabric dyeing
• Industrial wastewater
• Landfill leachate

Demands for development of membranes with specific performance continue to increase as water quality requirements tighten and water treatment system designs become more complex. Such demands lead to development of new reverse osmosis (RO) and nanofiltration (NF) membranes with higher rejection characteristics for better dissolved salts and boron removal.

New applications have developed which require selective removal of certain dissolved species such as:

• hardness
• natural organic matter (NOM)
• pesticides
• Organic material which causes color

Engineers desire high removal of specific contaminants in these applications, but at the same time want to maintain some level of salts in the water so it does not become aggressive, which can cause corrosion problems with piping in the distribution network.

Nanofiltration (NF) membranes have good selectivity for removal of naturally occurring organic compounds as well as iron. Organic material can be found in groundwater sources which have surface water intrusion, or groundwater sources which are influenced by decomposing vegetative materials. The contamination of these waters is measured in terms of color units.

Treated water from landfill leachate is another source of color in wastewater. When this wastewater is discharged to a municipal treatment plant (POTW), color and the presence of certain organic acids affect the performance of the final ultraviolet treatment step, causing the receiving facility to require that these components be reduced or eliminated.

Dynatec has developed a number of options for color removal with membranes and organic acid removal. Since each project requires different levels of removal and has different treatment requirements, treatability work is typically carried out to establish the required treatment process steps. Typically, treatment requirements not only include color removal, but may also require the removal of COD, BOD, oil and grease, metals, etc. The treatment steps may include:

• metals and/or free-floating oil
• settleable materials removal
• ultrafiltration for removal of suspended colloidal materials
• nanofiltration using several options that are available, depending on the requirements of the particular application
• reverse osmosis for the removal of color, dissolved solids and organics

Finally, some color removal can be accomplished with ion exchange resins specially developed for color removal.

Dynatec will carry out treatability work at their treatment lab or will provide small-scale pilot equipment that is shipped to the project site where longer term studies can be carried out.

Contact us today to discuss your wastewater treatment needs.

www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/textile-wastewat…reatment-systems/

Containerized Membrane Bioreactor Systems

Containerized membrane bioreactor systems: 

• Easy low-cost installation
• No building required
• Easily moved to other locations
• Quick and easy mobilization

Dynatec has extensive experience in the supply of containerized membrane bioreactor systems:

Treatment of up to 35,000gpd of sanitary waste in one container:

 Needs minimal operator attention

• Uses long‐lasting out‐of‐basin tubular membrane
• Produces high-quality purified water

Dynatec’s containerized membrane bioreactor systems use tubular out-of-basin membranes.

This concept provides many advantages:

• The system has the ability to operate at much higher levels of  MLSS than conventional systems and immersed MBRs.
• High levels of MLSS allow for higher levels of treatment, improved discharge quality, lower Waste Activated Sludge (WAS) volumes as well as increased flows from the same size reactor vessels.
• The concept is simple, requiring minimal operator attention.
• An available option allows for remote monitoring and/or control for even less operator attention.
• The system can be provided with aerobic digestion alone, or with nitrification/denitrification for total nitrogen removal.
• The system is provided complete with system feed pumps and screening installed.
• The membranes used provide up to 5-log levels of bacteria removal, reducing fecal discharge to         non-detect levels.
• The effluent from the system is suitable for many non-potable uses, including irrigation and toilet flushing. The effluent is suitable for further treatment, such as reverse osmosis without the requirement of any pretreatment, since no suspended solids are present, and residual organics are present only at low concentrations.

The MBR has proven to be optimal for treatment of many industrial wastewaters because it is less susceptible to upsets. The MBR’s performance is not affected by changes in sludge settleability like the conventional systems, making MBR a wise choice for industrial systems that have more difficult to treat waste streams. Dynatec has over 44 years experience in dealing with difficult to treat industrial wastewaters using membrane filtration.

Contact Dynatec Systems today to discuss your wastewater needs.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/membrane-bioreactors/mbr-conversion-r…pgrade-solutions/ ‎

Wastewater reuse

Wastewater reuse is achieved at an automotive plant. Wastewater equipment to treat both sanitary and production wastewater that included oily waste was designed and installed in a new transmission manufacturing facility.  The goal was to treat and purify water for reuse.

Dynatec met these demands by providing a membrane bioreactor (MBR) followed by a reverse osmosis (RO) system.  The MBR reduced BOD, TSS, and oil and grease to non-detect levels.  The RO is used to polish the MBR effluent so that it is suitable for reuse. It is reused in cleaning operations, cooling tower, and all production applications.

80%-90% of the wastewater is purified for reuse.  Additional industrial park wastewater (after primary clarification at the industrial park) is introduced to the system for treatment and purification.  The system is designed to receive 300,000gpd and purify 250,000gpd for reuse.

This novel approach greatly reduced the total amount of wastewater discharged by this plant.  It provided the water needed for production using a comprehensive system that Dynatec designed, supplied and installed.

Ultrafiltration (UF), Membrane Bioreactor (MBR), Nanofiltration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) are employed by Dynatec for these wastewater projects. Wastewater recovery and reuse has been successfully implemented with industrial and sanitary wastewater streams for:

• Cooling tower make up
• Boiler feed
• Irrigation
• Toilet flushing
• Direct potable reuse
• Cleaning/wash applications
• Rinse processes
• Painting processes
• Other plant processes

For more information on wastewater reuse, please contact us today.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/recovery-and-reuse/

Silver Recovery at Microcircuit Plant

The Problem

A microcircuit materials production facility produces high purity silver in their process. The process produces a wastewater stream containing valuable dissolved silver compounds. The plant had an existing membrane treatment system to recover the silver from the wastewater, but the system had performance problems, required excessive maintenance and chemical cleaning costs were high.

The Solution

When the plant expanded its operations, they performed an evaluation. The choice was between expanding the existing membrane system or installing a Dynatec membrane system designed for simple automatic operation with low operating costs. Dynatec was ultimately selected to provide a complete system because the Dynatec design offered a more reliable, easier to operate process. The installation includes transfer pumps, two reaction tanks, three ultrafiltration skids designed for 25 gpm each with room for expansion, a sludge conditioning system, and a filter press.

The Process

Wastewater from the process is stored in an equalization tank. Transfer pumps deliver the equalized wastewater to the first reaction tank where DTC (dithiocarbamate) is added to react with the aqueous silver compounds to form insoluble metal salts. The water then enters another reaction tank where the pH is adjusted to optimize precipitation of the silver compounds.

The precipitated silver compounds are then filtered in one of the three ultrafiltration skids. The ultrafiltration system, using tubular PVDF membranes are designed for automatic operation. When the membranes become fouled, the operator initiates an automatic cleaning, and the system performs a chemical membrane cleaning and the ultrafiltration skid is brought back into service.

The permeate from the ultrafilter is discharged and the concentrated silver is sent to a sludge conditioning tank where a high molecular weight cationic polymer is added to aid in filterability of the sludge. The sludge is then sent to a filter press and the cake is sent to a silver reclamation facility.

Conclusion

The installation of the new system was successful. The system has been operating for several years. Current operation at the plant consists of operating two filtration skids at a time with one as a standby. The system is designed to add capacity by simply adding membranes to the existing UF skids. Operators are happy with the system’s operation and the lower amount of maintenance and chemicals required.

Contact Dynatec to discuss your wastewater application.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/heavy-metals-removal/

High Quality Discharge MBR

Dynatec provides High Quality Discharge MBR system for Retirement Home

The retirement community consists of independent living homes and apartment homes in rural Maryland. The facility is in horse country, in a valley among rolling hills, and shares the area with high-end homes.

Previously, the facility had two septic tanks, and a recirculated sand bed filtration system. This created odors and caused mosquito infestations in summer. The facility chronically missed discharge limits, and thus was paying frequent fines. The sand bed filtration system was high maintenance, constantly flooding and requiring maintenance.

Replacement Criteria

In deciding on a replacement system, several criteria were important to the facility and to State regulators. The plant must be aesthetically pleasing. Odors must be minimized and if possible, eliminated. The plant had to achieve high levels of treatment to meet present and future discharge requirements. Future use of the treated water for irrigation is planned. The plant had to be operator friendly, and be capable of being monitored remotely, since full-time staff would not be available. The plant must be cost effective, from both capital and operating standpoints. Finally, the plant must be modular, in that future expansion of the facility must be accommodated in the design.

The initial plant sizing was nominally for 50,000 gallons per day of treatment capacity and has been expanded to 100,000 gallons per day.

System Design

After a review of the available treatment options, the owners of the facility decided on the (MBR) Membrane Bioreactor option. Due to the modular design of the system, they also chose the out-of-basin membrane module concept provided by the Dynatec MBR system. This process combines ease of use with all the requirements of both the owners and the regulators.

Odor control is achieved by using closed tanks vented to atmosphere. Air from the screening room is used to provide aeration to the reactors and the membranes, using the biomass as a biofilter. The negative pressure in the screen room ensures that there are no fugitive odors from the area. Mixing and aeration of the EQ tanks (the existing septic tanks) ensures no odors from that area.

Design Compatibility with the area: due to the nature of the area, the plant was designed to be installed in a “horse barn”, or at least a building that looks like a horse barn, but in fact, contains both the treatment plant and space for landscaping and other equipment.

High Levels of Treatment have been achieved since the plant’s inception in early 2007. Performance has been maintained since that time. Future plans include treatment for Total-N and Total-P to comply with Maryland’s “flush tax” requirements.

Cost Effective Installation was achieved using standard above-ground HDPE tanks, rather than the more common concrete tanks

Plant Expandability was achieved by the installation of one half of the plant, and the addition of a second membrane rack. No modifications to tanks or other work were required in 2009.

Conclusions:

Since completion and startup in early 2007, the plant has reliably performed, always producing high-quality water.

The Dynatec MBR concept provides economic advantages due to the modular design and the use of standard tanks. The cost of operation is modest when compared to alternatives.

Contact Dynatec Systems today to discuss your sanitary wastewater solution.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/sanitary-wastewater/

Flexographic Ink Wastewater Treatment

FLEXOGRAPHIC INK WASTEWATER TREATMENT

A corrugated box manufacturer utilized conventional batch physical/chemical treatment for processing wastewater generated from the clean-up of flexographic ink wastewater. The system consisted of chemical coagulation followed by conventional flocculation. A deep bed filter was used to clarify and dewater the waste. The system was operator intensive and generated lots of sludge for disposal.

Solution:
A tubular non-clog membrane filtration system was installed to process the waste stream. The waste was pH adjusted to optimize the removal of copper and zinc. The waste was circulated through the filter for discharge and the contaminants were concentrated. The
concentrate of contaminants was reduced to 2% of the original volume. The system reliably produces high quality water with very little operator involvement.

Simple Mechanical Process:
The membrane filter is a mechanical system that allows clean water to pass through the filter while contaminants are rejected and returned to the waste holding tank. There are no chemicals required other than that which may be necessary for pH adjustment. Also, there is no sludge generated by the process. The system simply separates the contaminants from the water, whereas a chemical treatment system generates copious amounts of sludge that must be dewatered and disposed.

Unattended Operation:
Since this process is completely mechanical and not dependent upon chemical feed and the coagulation and flocculation process, the only operational requirement is to clean the membrane filters periodically. This is a simple process that involves less than one half hour of an operator’s time. A chemical treatment system requires ongoing adjustments of the chemical feed pumps, make-up of the chemical feeds, operation of the dewatering system and control calibration and adjustment. The chemical system tasks require continual attention on a daily basis, whereas the membrane filtration system requires attention only for cleaning.

Consistently High Quality Water:
The membrane filter forms a positive barrier to the flow of contaminants, producing continuous high-quality water without operator attention. The membrane system is not affected by variability of the waste stream. The purified water is suitable for reuse or sewer discharge.

Low Disposal Cost:
The mechanical separation produced by the membrane filter does not generate sludge. It simply separates the contaminants from the water and leaves those contaminants in a liquid phase. The amount of liquid concentrate is normally very small and it is, therefore, cost-effective to dispose of that concentrate as a liquid waste and thereby preclude the need to run and operate a solidification and de-watering operation.

Low Operating Cost:
The membrane filtration system will be the least expensive treatment system to operate. The cost of operation of a membrane filtration system is much less than a chemical treatment system.

Contact Dynatec Systems today to discuss your wastewater solution today.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/industries/manufacturing-wastewater-treatment/ink-wastewater-treatment

Tank Truck Wash Water

A tanker truck operator built a new operations terminal part of which contains a wash facility to wash the interiors of trucks and the exterior of the tankers and tractors. The operation is a contract hauler so a wide variety of liquids will end up in the wastewater.

The facility obtained a sewer discharge permit that had restrictive oil and grease and metals limits but also had a daily discharge volume limit of 7,000 gallons.

Among the commodities transported are oil products, sugar, chemicals, acid, and caustic, as well as many other organic products. The system design, therefore, had to accommodate all these potential contaminants in the water.

The system design includes free oil separation, pH control and final treatment using ultrafiltration (UF). This treatment was designed to treat the wastewater to meet the sewer discharge limits despite variations in the waste stream.

Water having had the free oil, suspended solids, and emulsified oils removed and having had the pH controlled is suitable for use as wash and first rinse water in the tank washing operations. This, therefore, became part of the system design to conserve water and to enable the facility to meet the sewer volume discharge limitation. Because this was a new facility, there was not an opportunity to complete treatability studies on the wastewater. Dynatec Systems prior experience in similar/like applications served as the basis of design.

Tank Truck Wash Water Ultrafiltration

The ultrafilter is configured in a crossflow (tangential) flow process, a membrane pore size of 0.07 micron. It is used to reject colloidal and emulsified components in water. A high rate of flow across the membrane is maintained to cause turbulence. This, in turn, prevents fouling of the membranes.

For many waste applications like this one, a tubular membrane is specified to prevent the possibility of plugging of the membrane element and to concentrate the contaminants to a high concentration.

Tank Truck Wash Water Results

The system continues to meet the demanding discharge requirements. About 50% of the water produced is reused for wash and first rinse, both for the interiors of the tankers and for the exteriors of the vehicles.

The system is simple to operate and maintain. Variations in the quality of water being fed to the system caused by different chemicals being cleaned from the tankers does not cause variations in the quality of discharge.

Contact Dynatec Systems today to discuss your wastewater application.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/membrane-technologies/ultrafiltration-systems/

Chemical Manufacturer Wastewater Treatment

A chemical manufacturer issued a PO for a new wastewater treatment system from Dynatec. Our customer is in the process of a major plant expansion and needed to meet new, stricter discharge limits. The wastewater is high in oil and grease, BOD, and COD. The new system will consist of an ultrafiltration system followed by a membrane bioreactor (MBR). The performance of this system was proven over several months of piloting. The results confirmed the selection of UF followed by MBR. The BOD in the permeate was regularly non-detect, down from as high as 40,000ppm in the raw wastewater. All other discharge limits were easily met.

Chemical wastewater treatment utilizing membrane systems that range from selective separation of product to wastewater treatment and reuse.  Dynatec Systems has provided many different chemical wastewater solutions.

• Ultrafiltration (UF), Nanofiltration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) for selective separation of product for recovery
• MBR biological treatment
• Wastewater reuse with MBR
• Conversions of existing systems to MBR
  • Expand existing bioreactor treatment capacity
  • Improve discharge quality
  • Produce water for reuse
  • Reduce surcharge
• High purity reuse with MBR and RO

Contaminants Removed

• Organics
• Inorganic solids
• Phenol
• Solvents
• Oils
• Acids

Ultrafiltration offers the following advantages over conventional separation:

• No chemical required
• Very little labor required
• Simple mechanical process
• Less sludge
• Ability to concentrate the retentate for beneficial use
• Less space required
• Overall lower operating costs

Dynatec specializes in extensive RO and NF membrane systems to remove soluble components of wastewater that may not have been removed by primary treatment. In most cases, the purified water can be reused.

RO is capable of rejecting soluble constituents of aqueous streams, such as:

• Bacteria
• Salts
• Sugars
• Proteins
• A wide range of organics and colors
• Improves the color, taste and properties of the fluid

RO can be used to purify fluids such as ethanol, which will pass through the reverse osmosis membrane, while rejecting other ions and contaminants from passing.

RO/NF systems

The most common use for reverse osmosis is in purifying water. It is used to produce water that meets the most demanding specifications. This differs significantly from other RO systems that are often only designed to treat potable water. Our system is specifically designed to accommodate:

• Minimize reject volume
• Variable characteristics
• Minimize fouling

RO and NF Technology

RO uses a membrane that is semi-permeable, allowing the fluid that is being purified to pass through it, while rejecting the contaminants that remain. Most NF and RO systems are operated in crossflow to allow the membrane to continually clean itself.

Integrated clean-in-place (CIP)

The membrane skid has an integrated CIP system on the skid. This is especially important for wastewater reuse systems because the cleaning frequency of the skid is often higher than in other RO applications. With an integrated CIP system, cleaning is fast and easy, minimizing the operator’s time.

Tubular Configuration:

• Higher permeate rate
• Lower rates of fouling
• Higher concentration of retentate
• Easier to clean
• Longer membrane life
• Low operating cost

To discuss your wastewater treatment solution, please contact us today.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/membrane-bioreactors/mbr-conversion-r…pgrade-solutions/ ‎

Chemical plant wastewater treatment

Chemical plant wastewater treatment was failing to meet discharge limits, installed a Dynatec UF system to separate emulsified fats, oils, and grease (FOG) from their permeate.  The raw wastewater has more than 2,000ppm of emulsified FOG with peaks much higher at times. The system consists of four UF units and related components. The system currently treats 66gpm, but all 4 units are expandable. The permeate is free of FOG and is acceptable for discharge.

https://www.dynatecsystems.com/technologies/membrane-technologies/ultrafiltration-systems/

Chemical wastewater treatment utilizing membrane systems that range from selective separation of product to wastewater treatment and reuse.  Dynatec Systems has provided many different chemical wastewater solutions.

Chemical Wastewater Treatment Solutions

• Ultrafiltration (UF), Nanofiltration (NF) and Reverse Osmosis (RO) for selective separation of product for recovery
• MBR biological treatment
• Wastewater reuse with MBR
• Conversions of existing systems to MBR
  • Expand existing bioreactor treatment capacity
  • Improve discharge quality
  • Produce water for reuse
  • Reduce surcharge
• High purity reuse with MBR and RO

Contaminants Removed

• Organics
• Inorganic solids
• Phenol
• Solvents
• Oils
• Acids

Ultrafiltration offers the following advantages over conventional separation:

• No chemical required
• Very little labor required
• Simple mechanical process
• Less sludge
• Ability to concentrate the retentate for beneficial use
• Less space required
• Overall lower operating costs

Dynatec specializes in extensive RO and NF membrane systems to remove soluble components of wastewater that may not have been removed by primary treatment. In most cases, the purified water can be reused.

RO is capable of rejecting soluble constituents of aqueous streams, such as:

• Bacteria
• Salts
• Sugars
• Proteins
• A wide range of organics and colors
• Improves the color, taste and properties of the fluid

RO can be used to purify fluids such as ethanol, which will pass through the reverse osmosis membrane, while rejecting other ions and contaminants from passing.

RO/NF systems

The most common use for reverse osmosis is in purifying water. It is used to produce water that meets the most demanding specifications. This differs significantly from other RO systems that are often only designed to treat potable water. Our system is specifically designed to accommodate:

• Minimize reject volume
• Variable characteristics
• Minimize fouling

RO and NF Technology

RO uses a membrane that is semi-permeable, allowing the fluid that is being purified to pass through it, while rejecting the contaminants that remain. Most NF and RO systems are operated in crossflow to allow the membrane to continually clean itself.

Integrated clean-in-place (CIP)

The membrane skid has an integrated CIP system on the skid. This is especially important for wastewater reuse systems because the cleaning frequency of the skid is often higher than in other RO applications. With an integrated CIP system, cleaning is fast and easy, minimizing the operator’s time.

Tubular Configuration:

• Higher permeate rate
• Lower rates of fouling
• Higher concentration of retentate
• Easier to clean
• Longer membrane life
• Low operating cost

To discuss your wastewater treatment solution, please contact us today.