Effective Wastewater Treatment with Energy Recovery
Anaerobic wastewater treatment breaks down organic pollutants in the absence of oxygen. While aerobic treatment incurs high energy costs for aeration, anaerobic treatment produces valuable biogas. This process is the ideal choice for highly contaminated wastewater, helping to reduce operating costs and improve your site’s carbon footprint.
While aerobic processes require a great deal of energy for aeration, anaerobic wastewater treatment produces valuable biogas. You can burn this biogas directly in your boilers or use it in a combined heat and power (CHP) plant to generate electricity and heat. This transforms your wastewater treatment plant from a cost center into a power plant.
Anaerobic bacteria derive their energy from the breakdown of organic matter into CO2. Their growth rate is significantly lower than that of aerobic cultures. The result: up to 90% less excess sludge is produced. This saves you disposal and transportation costs—a crucial factor given today’s prices.
With the help of high-performance reactors, even high organic loads (COD) can be treated in a very small footprint. This is ideal for sites where there is no space for large, shallow aeration tanks.
Our anaerobic systems are designed to handle fluctuating influent loads from industrial processes in a stable manner—for example, following treatment processes or during changing production campaigns. Once established, the biological system is particularly robust and requires minimal maintenance.
Every industrial process leaves specific traces in the water. As part of our anaerobic wastewater treatment process, we analyze your specific contaminants and select the appropriate combination of processes. This allows us to remove specific substances and convert organic contaminants into a valuable energy source for your operation.
Not all wastewater is immediately suitable for anaerobic treatment. In our laboratory, we determine the energy potential of your wastewater through specific fermentation tests. Based on this, we combine the appropriate pre- and post-treatment processes to reliably separate even problematic substances.<br>
We also develop suitable solutions for other contaminants. We integrate the anaerobic treatment stage as a highly efficient component into a comprehensive system that reliably manages all your wastewater streams.
Anaerobic treatment is particularly effective at breaking down high loads of COD and BOD. Compared to aerobic treatment, this process has a positive energy balance: The anaerobic breakdown of COD produces methane, which can be used to generate energy.
The result: a drastic reduction in your discharge fees while simultaneously producing carbon-neutral energy.
In an anaerobic system, oils and greases can be problematic because they can coat the active bacterial pellets and block their metabolism. If necessary, greases and oils are therefore removed from the wastewater stream through a pretreatment stage. This allows the microorganisms in the reactor to convert the dissolved organic matter into biogas without being inhibited by greases and oils.
By excluding oxygen and utilizing specific process temperatures, the anaerobic process in the reactor provides a natural barrier against many aerobic microorganisms. In combination with various intermediate stages, it is possible to achieve a level of water quality that enables safe recirculation even in industries with stringent hygiene requirements.
Dissolved organic compounds are particularly well-suited for anaerobic treatment. Our specialized microbial system breaks down these substances in a multi-stage process—from hydrolysis to methanation. This offers significant advantages over conventional, aerobic wastewater treatment plants: Up to 90% less excess sludge is produced, significantly reducing your disposal costs. At the same time, the organic load is converted into valuable biogas. This allows you to use your wastewater as an energy source and achieve a demonstrably positive energy balance.
To ensure that we remain well below strict nitrate and nitrite limits, we take a holistic approach to the processes in your facility. Through targeted process control, harmful nitrogen compounds are reliably converted into harmless elemental nitrogen, which escapes as a gas. This guarantees your legally compliant adherence to the strictest environmental regulations.
At the heart of our technology is the conversion of dissolved pollutants into valuable energy—without the high electricity consumption associated with conventional aeration.
Before the wastewater enters the high-performance reactor, it is collected and equalized in a tank. This tank houses the hydrolysis and acidification stages. There, complex organic substances such as sugar or starch are broken down into simple organic acids.
The result: A stable pH level and a consistent temperature protect the sensitive biological system in the main reactor from fluctuations in the quality and quantity of the wastewater and ensure constant gas production.
The heart of the plant is the anaerobic reactor: Here, specialized bacterial pellets convert the dissolved acids directly into biogas in the absence of oxygen. A controlled upward flow keeps the Biomass suspended, allowing it to operate with high efficiency.
The result: Maximum cleaning performance in COD removal while taking up minimal space. Unlike aerobic processes, this results in a positive energy balance and virtually no excess sludge.
At the top of the reactor, a three-phase separator separates the purified water from the biogas produced and the bacterial pellets. The biogas is extracted from the top, while the bacterial pellets are retained within the system.
The result: You receive treated process water for discharge or reuse, while simultaneously generating your own heat or electricity from the biogas produced.
The biogas produced in the separation system is a high-quality energy source. However, before it can be used, it must be purified to remove moisture and impurities. The raw gas is processed for use in a compact purification stage. This prevents corrosion damage to your equipment. As a result, your wastewater becomes a clean and highly efficient source of energy.
Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket
The wastewater flows through a compact pellet sludge bed from the bottom to the top. An integrated three-phase separator in the reactor head separates biogas, water, and Biomass from one another gravimetrically. Since the system operates entirely without moving parts, maintenance effort and OPEX are reduced to a minimum. At moderate upflow rates, the UASB reactor offers maximum process stability and a high tolerance for particulate matter.
Expanded Granular Sludge Blanket
Targeted wastewater recirculation increases the upward flow velocity. As a result, the granular sludge bed expands into a slightly fluidized state. This dynamic improves mass transfer between the Biomass and the wastewater. You benefit from significantly reduced space requirements and the flexibility to reliably accommodate even highly fluctuating influent concentrations.
Internal Circulation
This two-stage, high-performance system uses the biogas generated in the inlet to drive a self-sufficient Mammut pump via an internal riser pipe. The mixture is degassed at the top of the reactor and then flows back down by gravity. This design eliminates the need for external pumps and enables extremely high upward flow rates. As a result, maximum COD loading rates are achieved on a minimal footprint, and channeling in the sludge bed is prevented.
Spaleck Wassertechnik GmbH
6 Robert-Bosch Street
46397 Bocholt
Phone: +49 2871 2134 – 0
E-mail: info@spaleck.de
Anaerobic wastewater treatment offers a highly efficient solution for wastewater with high organic loads. We’ll work with you to determine, through an initial analysis, whether your specific load characteristics and temperatures are optimally suited for energy recovery. The system reliably reduces pollutants, lowers operating costs, and produces valuable biogas.
Managing Organic Contaminants in the Metal Industry
Metalworking often generates highly contaminated effluents from degreasing baths or emulsion separation. The anaerobic treatment stage in our comprehensive solution efficiently breaks down organic additives and surfactants.
Generating Biogas from Food Industry Wastewater
Whether it’s whey, sugar residues, or organic suspended solids, your wastewater is a high-energy raw material. Our reactors convert these organic contaminants into valuable methane gas that you can use directly in production.
Consistent wastewater treatment with varying batches
Frequent product changes result in fluctuating wastewater compositions with high concentrations of organic matter. SPALECK's anaerobic biology is designed to reliably handle these peak loads and ensure the success of your entire water treatment system.
Anaerobic Pretreatment in the Chemical Industry
In chemical production, wastewater is often highly concentrated but readily biodegradable. Anaerobic pretreatment drastically reduces the COD load before the water is routed to further SPALECK water treatment plants for final treatment or discharged into the public sewer system.
Treating Recirculating Water and Generating Energy
The production of paper and cardboard consumes enormous amounts of water and energy. Through the anaerobic treatment of recirculating water, we keep your water fresh while recovering energy at the same time.
Customized Solutions for Various Wastewater Parameters
Every process is unique. Even if your industry isn’t listed here, we’ll analyze your specific wastewater parameters in our in-house laboratory. This allows us to identify the right components for your customized water treatment solution.
If you have any questions about SPALECK water technology, our team of experts will be happy to assist you.
Here you’ll find answers to frequently asked questions about anaerobic water treatment. If you need more information, please feel free to contact us.
This is one of the biggest efficiency advantages: Anaerobic bacteria grow significantly slower than aerobic bacteria. As a result, up to 90% less excess sludge is produced. This drastically reduces your costs for sludge dewatering and disposal and noticeably eases the burden on your logistics operations. In addition, there is the opportunity to market the resulting bacterial pellets.
We build customized wastewater treatment plants. We pay attention to modularity and accessibility in our in-house design. This means that the system remains flexible enough to grow with your company or to be technologically upgraded.
Anaerobic microorganisms are very resilient. They can be put into a “dormant state” for a certain period of time. When production is resumed, the reactors return to full capacity within a short time. We configure the system to suit your individual processes.
The key advantage lies in the energy balance. While aerobic processes require a lot of electricity for aeration, anaerobic systems produce valuable biogas. In addition, significantly less sewage sludge is generated, which drastically reduces your disposal costs. In short: You transform your wastewater load into a source of energy.
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