Conserving Energy Through Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment

PROJECT NUMBER: 35

AUTHOR: Emily Phaneuf, Civil and Environmental Engineering | MENTOR: Junko Munakata-Marr, Civil and Environmental Engineering

ABSTRACT

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Conventional municipal wastewater treatment is an energy-intensive process due to the high energy demand of aeration equipment. The goal of this project is to investigate an energy-positive treatment system for domestic wastewater consisting of an anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) coupled with an anaerobic fixed film reactor (AFFR). Since bacteria used in this system are anaerobic in nature, there is no need for aeration. Additionally, methane is produced by microbial communities present; this biogas can be captured for energy recovery, potentially making the system energy-positive. A pilot-scale ABR-AFFR is used to treat raw wastewater from an on-campus apartment complex, which makes it unique to other pilot-scale treatment systems that rely on the use of synthetic wastewater. Weekly sampling consists of testing for biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total and volatile suspended solids (TSS, VSS). Environmental Protection Agency standards for suspended solids in effluent are consistently met, and effluent approaches secondary standards for BOD. Continued development of this system will allow for a higher standard of effluent quality, such as secondary treatment steps to remove nitrogen or to further decrease BOD levels.

VISUAL PRESENTATION

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AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

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Emily is a sophomore studying environmental engineering. Within the civil/environmental engineering department, she conducts research within ReNUWIt, a multi-institution engineering research center focused on urban water management. For the past two years, she has worked at the Mines Park laboratory collecting samples from a pilot-scale anaerobic wastewater treatment system used for domestic wastewater. The goal of this project is to evaluate the potential for such a treatment system to be energy-positive. In the future, she hopes to further investigate adding a secondary treatment system that uses aeration to further reduce effluent biochemical oxygen demand levels.

Sponsored by Phillips 66