Proceedings

THE APPLICATION OF VIROFILTER TECHNOLOGY AT YORKSHIRE WATER

Elizabeth Wood1, Lee Fergusson2, Mark Lowe3, Stuart Leigh3
1Yorkshire Water, 2Virotec Europe Ltd, 3Aqua Enviro Ltd

(free)

The dispersal of phosphorus from sewage, industrial wastes, detergents, and runoff from urban and agricultural land has played a major part in the eutrophication of many freshwater and marine ecosystems in Europe. As a consequence, phosphate discharge consents on final effluent are being tightened. Many agricultural activities, industrial processes, and water companies thus face additional treatment requirements to reduce soluble phosphate from discharge waters.

ViroFilter Technology offers a passive, flow-through treatment system for phosphorus removal to very low levels. The Technology reduces or eliminates the need for chemical dosing, allows for variations in hydraulic flow and nutrient loading, minimises sludge production, and provides an effective and simple treatment system applied immediately prior to final effluent discharge.

Aqua Enviro Ltd. was commissioned by Yorkshire Water to conduct a four-month independent trial to evaluate the potential use of ViroFilter Technology to enhance the removal of phosphate from municipal wastewaters in line with the tightening consent standards in the Yorkshire region. The key objective of the work was to provide a reliable, robust and economic solution to ensure that a wastewater treatment plant always remains within consent.

The pilot-scale project was conducted at Yorkshire Water’s Kirk Smeaton treatment plant. It comprised three separate filter configurations to compare different possible design scenarios, hydraulic residence times, removal efficiencies and projected filter life-spans. The project was designed to confirm data collected during previous trials, such as that undertaken by the WRc. The study also sought to determine the optimum media disposal routes available to Yorkshire Water with a prediction of associated costs and the potential benefits of admixtures to sludge.

Filter Pairing A consisted of two large-scale columns operating in series, with each filter containing approximately 0.75m3 of ViroFilter pellet media. The filters ran with a hydraulic residence time (HRT) of 12 hours (six hours in each filter). The influent phosphate concentration averaged 10.3mg/L for the duration of the trial and the effluent discharge averaged 2.6mg/L, with an average TP removal efficiency across both columns of 74%. In addition, BOD was reduced from an average of 6.8mg/L to 4.3mg/L, a 36% reduction, and ammonia-nitrogen was reduced from an average of 1.1mg/L to 0.86 mg/L, a 24% reduction.

Filter Pairing B consisted of a smaller two-stage filter system, again running in series but with a shorter HRT of two to three hours (one to one and a half hours HRT in each filter). The influent phosphate concentration averaged 9.6mg/L and the effluent discharge averaged 1.8mg/L, an average TP removal efficiency across both columns of 81%. Filter Pairing C, consisted of a three-stage filter system operated in series with an HRT of 12 hours. In contrast with Filter Pairing A, each filter column operated with an HRT of four hours. The influent phosphate concentration averaged 9.6mg/L and the effluent discharge averaged 0.37mg/L, an average TP removal efficiency across both columns of 95%.

From the results of this at Yorkshire Water and from previous results, it can be concluded that ViroFilter Technology results in a significant reduction of phosphate in municipal effluent and may play an important role in future wastewater treatment options for water companies in Europe.

KEY WORDS ViroFilter Technology, eutrophication, phosphate, municipal wastewater, ferric dosing, discharge consents, rural wastewater treatment plants, passive treatment.

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