A Tribute to Orris Albertson

Staged Activated Sludge Bioselectors

ASCE EWRI

May 21, 2012

Albuquerque, New Mexico

H David Stensel, PhD, PE

Civil and Environmental Engineering

University of Washington

University of Washington

BSCE 1955

MSCE 1957

Quote from letter about

WEF Camp Award to Orrie “I have known Orrie for more than 20

years and know him to be an outstanding

innovator

who is dedicated to developing and

implementing technology to protect the

water environment.

His outstanding contribution to the

development of bioselectors represents

one of many such contributions.”

Some of his important publications on

selectors and SVI

• Albertson, O.E. (1987) The Control of Bulking sludge: From the

Early Innovators to Current Practice. J. Water Pollut. Control Fed.,

59 (4), 172.

•

• Albertson, O.E. (1991) Bulking Sludge Control – Progress, Practice

and Problems. Water Sci. Technol., 23 (4-6), 835.

•

• Albertson, O.E. (1994) Selector Technology for Activated Sludge

Bulking Control. Presentation at the Practitioner’s Seminar, ASCE-

EE National Conference, Boulder, Colorado, July.

• Albertson, O. E. ( 2005), “Activated sludge bioselector processes”,

Report prepared for a WERF project, Alexandria, VA.

Air

Aeration tank

Return activated sludge

Secondary

clarifier

Sludge

Effluent

A major concern for poor settling sludge is proliferation of filamentous

growth in activated sludge – common for single tank, completely

mixed systems

Good Settling Sludge is Key to Effective and

Stable Activated Sludge Operation and Performance

Filamentous bulking sludge has an excessive level of filaments

Filament backbone

Extended filament

Floc-former

Well-settling sludge

A Brief Background

What happens in a bioselector?

• The floc-formers consume most of the

influent soluble readily-degradable COD

• Provide conditions that give advantage to

floc formers- the 3 Types

– Substrate uptake

– Anoxic substrate uptake

– Anaerobic substrate uptake

SKs

S

Substrate concentration and F/M

Filamentous

bacteria

Floc-former

selector

CMAS

Kinetics theory

Floc-formers grow faster than filaments

at higher substrate concentration Filaments are good scavengers of low substrate

Substrate storage

also occurs at

high S

Air

Primary

effluent

Anoxic selector Aeration tank

Mixer

Internal recycle

Return activated sludge

Secondary

clarifier

Sludge

Effluent

Anoxic selector – favors biodegradable soluble COD

uptake by floc-forming bacteria

Air

Primary

effluent

Anaerobic selector Aeration tank

Mixer

Internal recycle

Return activated sludge

Secondary

clarifier

Sludge

Effluent

Anaerobic selector – Phosphorus accumulating

bacteria consume soluble COD in anaerobic zone –

filaments can not.

The Orris Albertson Selector Design

Highly staged-BNR Systems

High F/M Initial Contact Zone (ICZ)

The Orrie Albertson Method

1. Observe

2. Intense study and thought

3. Engineer – apply/innovate

4. Full Scale testing or implementation

5. Review/improve

6. Keep learning

My test facility versus Orrie’s

Orrie’s test design at Phoenix 23rd Avenue WWTP (~1987)

Some excerpts from Orrie’s

intense study of filaments •1927. Calvert - activated sludge operating problems in England,

referring …as a “bulking” sludge.

•1932a, 1932b. Donaldson- referred to bulking organisms

-recommended staging of the aeration basins to control bulking

.

•1949-1952. Davidson -initial anaerobic (AN) reactor

followed by an oxic (O2) reactor controlled the growth of bulking organisms.

was patented

•1966. Koller experimented with three batch-fed reactors

producing (SVIs) of 51, 72, and 58 mL/g while

CMAS reactors had SVIs of 280, 512, and 440 mL/g, respectively.

•1973a, 1973b. Chudoba et al., - studies in 1-, 4-, 8- and 16-stage reactors.

SVI was reduced with more staging, from 517 mL/g

to 51 mL/g in the 16-stage unit.

•1974. Heide and Pasveer - decr SVI of an oxidation ditch from 500 to 100-150 mL/g

by intermittent feeding, Further reduction to 70 mL/g with a 5-stage initial contact

•1978a, 1978b. Tomlinson and Chambers reported on a study of

24 activated sludge plants and found that the SVI decreased

as the number of stages increased

Kinetic selection requires F/M gradient

SV

I, m

l/g

0 1 2 3 4 5

Theoretical Initial Contact Zone (F/M)kgBODs/kg MLSS, day

700

600

500

400

300

200

100

0

Tomlinson, 1976

1988. Wanner and Grau -hydrolysis of particulates occurred mostly in the oxic zone slow release of soluble COD in the oxic zones favorable to the growth of filaments recommended staged oxic volume

• 1987 – Orrie Albertson

Concludes Staged Bioselector has merit

Designs Columbus Southerly Bioselector

BOD F/M = 5.7, 2.9, 1.4 kg/kg-d

7 stages of anoxic/Oxic

Low consistent SVI maintained

Examples of Plants converted to low

SVI by Orrie

Flow Stages SVI

Facility Mgal/d Anaerobic Anoxic Oxic ml/g

Columbus Southerly, OH 114.0 3 6 70-100

Columbus Jackson, OH 62.2 2 7 ~90

Puyallup, WA 7.3 3 5 53-116

Lakeland, Fl 13.7 3 5 80-100

Phoenix, 23rd Ave, Az 35.1 3 5 70-110

Phoenix 91st Ave. AZ 153.9 3 5 70-100

Federick, MD 9.8 3 3 100-140

Dallas, Tx 114.9 3 5 60-100

Hampton Roads, VA 30.1 2 4 3 60-85

Orrie’s Recommended BioSelector Design

Principles Stages

minimum of 8

•Oxic stages

•4 to 6 or more

•Bioselector

•ICZ F/M = 3-5 kg BOD5/kg MLSS·d,

• 3 or 4 baffled stages

•Dissolved oxygen,

•≥ 2 mg/L in oxic stages

•SRTOX

•≥ 4 days

•Mixed liquor SS

• ≥ 3000 mg/L

•No back-mixing, except for IR and RAS

University of WA. Research

WERF Project

• Does a staged anoxic selector result in better filamentous control than a single-stage selector?

– YES

• Do slowly biodegradable substrates (sbCOD) affect sludge SVI in single and staged anoxic systems?

– YES

• Is there a different microbial population selection for 4 stage vs 1 stage anoxic

– YES

Single-Stage Anoxic Selector

Feed

Motor

RAS

Anoxic Selector Air Pump

Aeration Zone

Clarifier

Effluent

Feed

Motor Anoxic Selector

Aeration Zone

Air Pump

4-Stage Anoxic Selector

Clarifier

Effluent

S1

S4

SBR

Operation conditions:

5-day aerobic SRT

20±2oC

Anoxic phase: 16% of total

react time

Electron acceptors NO3 or O2

in excess

FEED

Feed

Magnetic stirrer

Timer

Air pump

To effluent container

S1 and S4:

IR and RAS: 1.5Q

MLSS: 1900 mg/L

SBR:

4 hr/cycle, 30 min anoxic,

165 min aerobic

MLSS: 2500 mg/L

IR

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

0 10 20 30 40 50

S1

S4

Dil

ute

d S

VI (D

SV

I), m

L/g

Day

Selectors added

on Day 21

> 96% Acetate removed in anoxic selectors

only 3 of 4 stages of S4 was needed to equal

acetate removal of S1

CMAS ONLY

WITH SELECTORS

Lower DSVI for 4-stage selector.

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

170 180 190 200 210

SBR

S1

S4

S1'

S4'

DS

VI,

mL

/g

Day

Dextrin removed

from the feed

Selector switched

Glucose removed

from the feed

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

500

170 180 190 200 210

S1

S4

S1'

S4'

SBR

DS

VI,

mL

/g

Day

Selectors switched

Single-stage selector had higher DSVIs before and after selector switch.

DSVI in descending order: S1 > S4 > SBR

Explanation for DSVI differences in

the three systems

• More dextrin hydrolyzed in staged selector because of 1st

order kinetics – less substrate for filaments in aerobic

zone

• Agrees with Wanner and Grau on importance of staging

for greater hydrolysis efficiency

• Staged anoxic encourages substrate storage and different

population selection

• Results support use of staged anoxic or anaerobic

selectors-

• Low substrate concentration in CMAS aerobic zones

favors filamentous growth

Related literatures

• Eikelboom et al. (1998) Proliferation of Microthrix

parvicella, Type 0041, Nostocoida limicola II, and Type

1851 in anoxic systems in European WWTPs;

• Dionisi et al. (2002) Anoxic/aerobic SBRs fed with

acetate, oleic acid, and starch;

• Schade and Lemmer (2006) In situ enzyme activity of N.

limicola II and Type 1851 by enzyme labeled

fluorescence technique;

• Fisher and Triplett (1999) First paper for ARISA.

Orrie always had the plant operator in mind

Placerville, Calif. WWTP ~2009

Orrie, Wylie and Webb

The Orrie Albertson Method

1. Observe

2. Intense study and thought

3. Engineer – apply/innovate

4. Full Scale testing or implementation

5. Review/improve

6. Keep learning