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Castle Water helps businesses that want to optimise how wastewater treatment is handled. A business wants to ensure that water entering the local system does not increase nitrates and ammonium.
Monitoring and controlling the levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in wastewater can see better water recycling, reduced reliance on harsh chemicals, and improved water standards.
While having these chemicals in your internal systems can help tremendously to improve BOD, a surplus of nitrogen can see increased amounts of ammonia in treated wastewater.
Looking at phosphates, their composition leads to a position where you would have insoluble material, making it a problem to get phosphorus down to a level where it is safe to re-enter the local network.
Treatment options need to look at oxidising oxygen-poor environments to improve water quality.
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Nitrogen can be present in wastewater in several ways, including:
Luckily, no matter which forms it takes, it is the easiest of the two (when compared to phosphorus) to remove. The methods used will depend on your system and what form nitrogen takes.
Conventional removal methods include hydrolysis, nitrification (an overload process producing easier to remove acids), aeration adjustments and denitrification.
There are two leading factors for how treatment can work when looking to remove phosphorus. The most common would be a biological removal, where phosphorus is separated and left in a settling pond. Over time, aeration helps bacteria get in there and break everything down. While it is a more environmentally friendly form of breakdown, it only works if you have the space to have settling ponds on site.
The second method is chemical removal, which usually involves adding a metal-based substance to the wastewater. By adding metal, phosphorus wants to react, which is how phosphates are formed. The limitation here is that due to insolubility, it forms biofilms that need to be removed separately.
With nitrogen and phosphorus readily present in organic substances, many smaller businesses, especially those in the food, drink and brewing niches, often find themselves in a tough position looking for practical solutions when space and resources are a premium.
If you need help with food & drink wastewater management, please contact the team today.
Castle Water can help any business across the country when they want to see improvements in how they can treat wastewater. Through our team of specialists agents who know how to optimise systems, you can see:
If you’d like to know more about improving systems overall, please click here to read about how Castle Water can help with all wastewater management issues.