Monthly Archives: September 2016

WASTEWATER TREATMENT IN IRELAND – EXPLAINING THE CHALLENGES

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KEE Process has been working with private companies and public bodies in Ireland for over 40 years.

KEE Process is a major supplier of process engineered treatment systems to local councils and private companies in Northern and southern Ireland. KEE has supplied and installed plants at over 20 sites in Southern and Western Divisions of Water Services, Northern Ireland, for populations ranging from 100PE to 3000PE. The applications vary from simple municipal wastewater treatment plants providing basic treatment to supplying plants designed to produce high quality effluent with less than 3 mg/l of ammoniacal nitrogen and less than 5mg/l BOD and suspended solids.

KEE Process has worked with a number of Irish councils to upgrade treatment plants to allow the discharge of highly polluted industrial effluent into their systems. In many cases the requirements are stringent, requiring total nitrogen and phosphorus removal. KEE has a team of experienced process and project engineers capable of delivering solutions that combine simplicity of process design with low lifetime cost. Municipal wastewater treatment plants for small communities can be designed to accommodate and treat industrial discharges as long as these are taken into account at the design stage. However, sudden or intermittent discharge of industrial wastewater would shock load a small treatment plant and cause the municipal treatment plants to become overloaded and malfunction. KEE Process has provided solutions to overcome these problems. KEE has upgraded municipal facilities without upheaval and also overcome the problems by providing partial treatment of industrial discharges at source. This is particularly the case with municipal facilities which become oxygen limited in the activated sludge stage. One solution is to install a versatile dual mode TRITON® processor which provides mixing and/or introduces dissolved oxygen into the mixed liquor. A KEE DISPERSED AIR FLOATATION (DAF) MICROFLOAT® SYSTEM can be used to provide partial on-site treatment for industrial discharges, thereby reducing the load discharged into the sewer and the municipal treatment plant. KEE used its TRITON® Aerator to upgrade an overloaded municipal plant to accommodate loads generated from a distillery and are also in the process of upgrading a dairy plant using TRITON® to overcome oxygen deficiencies and to further introduce biological phosphorus removal in the plant. A KEE DAF system would be installed upstream of the biological process for fat removal.

KEE Group technologies include physio-chemical processes such as DAF, simple gravity solids and grease separators, biological processes such as anaerobic reactors (for high strength wastewater), fixed film Reactors (RBC & SAF) and suspended growth reactors (activated sludge processes – extended aeration, oxidation ditch, SBR, and extended aeration followed by Ultra Fine Filtration).

With the introduction of the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the need to treat pollution, it goes without saying that the polluter pays.  Consequently, industries which discharge large quantities of heavily polluted wastewater into the sewer will have to consider the options for on-site treatment to reduce their costs and the loads on the municipal treatment facilities. The treatment options which they should consider are physical, physical/chemical or biological treatment, or a combination of all or any of these. KEE Process have designed and supplied municipal wastewater treatment plants in Northern Ireland for sites at Kinallen, Fivemiletown, Bergah, Ballinamallard, Fintona, Lisbellaw, Caledon, Lislea and many others.  In Ireland many of KEE’s projects have been delivered through partnerships with John Molloy Engineering Ltd (JME), a firm of local M & E contractors who offer total supply and installation packages, with fully comprehensive after sales support.  Some of these projects include plants built at the following sites:

  1. Woodenbridge Hotel, Co. Wicklow.

The Woodenbridge hotel had a wastewater treatment plant that was failing to meet consent and was expensive to maintain and operate. When it decided to build a new 40-bedroom lodge on the Co. Wicklow site, the management decided to build a new plant to treat all the existing flows as well as the flows from the 40-bed expansion.  The onerous discharge requirements included reduction of total nitrogen and phosphorus and the plant had to produce final effluent to comply consistently with BOD < 20 mg/l, SS < 30 mg/l, COD < 80 mg/l, NH4-N < 20 mg/l, NO3-N (Nitrate Nitrogen) < 5 mg/l, Phosphate as PO4 < 12 mg/l, FOG (fat, oil and grease) < 20 mg/l and Detergent (MSAS) < 1 mg/l.

The plant also had to have low operational and maintenance costs. The supplier had to be able to provide a complete service including planned preventative and emergency maintenance, process and operation maintenance as well as effluent sampling. The proposal involved KEE and JME supplying, delivering, installing and commissioning a 60m3 primary settlement tank, a Module DC16 Rotating Biological Contactor and an ST6 hopper bottom GRP final settlement tank.  All this equipment was factory built and delivered to the hotel site ready for installation on concrete slabs.  The plant was installed and commissioned in 2003.  Since then it has operated extremely well mechanically and has delivered excellent process performance. The total electricity costs for the plant are less than EUR 1,000 per annum.

  1. Muskerry Golf Club.

This was a design and build turnkey contract for JME and KEE who were process partners in the project. The discharge license was direct to the watercourse and specified a BOD < 20 mg/l, SS < 30 mg/l, NH4-N < 20 mg/l and Phosphate as P < 2 mg/l. KEE supplied their compact single piece NuDisc® Model 1200 and JME laid the sewer, outfall and installed the treatment plant with a committee of engineers from the club supervising the entire contract.

  1. Portmarnock Golf Club.

Portmarnock Golf Club in North County Dublin is one of Ireland’s premier link courses. During the recent refurbishment of the clubhouse, new on-site sewage treatment plant and disposal systems were required. The discharge license specified a BOD < 20 mg/l, SS < 30 mg/l and NH4-N < 10 mg/l, NO3-N (Nitrate Nitrogen) < 15 mg/l, Phosphate as PO4 < 5 mg/l and FOG (fat, oil and grease) < 10 mg/l. KEE Process Ltd and JME designed the process and supplied and installed a single-piece compact packaged plant NuDisc® F13N with inbuilt de-nitrification and phosphate removal stages. The JME contract also included the design and installation of an inlet pumping station and a sub-surface percolation area.

  1. Kilbride Army Camp.

This was a plant for a military camp with variable flows and high fluctuations in the seasonal loads and an onerous discharge license with BOD < 10 mg/l, SS < 10 mg/l and Phosphate as P < 2 mg/l. KEE supplied its packaged compact single piece NuDisc® Model F13 and JME led the contract on installation and commissioning.

  1. Cork County Council, Killeagh.

This was an installation for a municipal treatment works for Cork County Council for 1000 PE.  The flow to the works are from combined drainage systems with a discharge license for BOD < 20 mg/l and SS < 30 mg/l.

KEE supplied their packaged modular treatment system and JME led the contract for installation and commissioning.

To see the capabilities of the KEE Group of companies please visit the KEE Group website

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THE KEE GROUP – WHO AND WHAT ARE THEY?

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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES affect us all equally and most of us have a heightened awareness of the environmental impact on our planet. All of us need stable climate weather patterns, clean air and clean water for survival and we at KEE play our role in securing the cleanliness of our water sources.

KEE GROUP, comprising of KEE Process Limited and KEE Services Limited is a privately-owned British company which, for the past 60 years, has been at the forefront of providing affordable solutions for the treatment of wastewater and its discharge into a watercourse or the aquafer.

We all take for granted a clean water supply but the treated wastewater discharged into the environment, in almost all cases, does become a source for that clean water supply. Consequently over many  years, quality requirements for discharge of treated effluent to watercourses have gradually been tightened up and at present these quality requirements do not only relate to reduction of oxygen demand and suspended solids but also include nutrient removal such as total nitrogen and phosphorus. Behind the scenes at KEE, we have been busy making sure that we continue to rise to the challenge of the stringent requirements for discharge of treated effluent from Municipal and Industrial wastewater treatment systems.

To support this mission, KEE has patented and introduced a large range of technologies and hardware to provide systems for treating small and large flows. The small flows are treated using KEE NuDisc® single-piece packaged plants, which are designed and engineered to provide value for money and are configured to operate with minimum day-to-day intervention. In addition to these single piece KEE NuDisc® packaged plants, there is the modular system arrangement, based on various technologies such as RBC, SAF and Activated Sludge plants. These single piece and modular packaged plants are versatile in their application and are able to provide nutrient (total nitrogen and phosphorus) reduction in the packaged plant configuration.

KEE also provides and supplies solutions for larger flows, which may involve construction of a plant from modular components and hardware, or a totally on-site built system. KEE has all the technology options at its disposal and is therefore able to process-engineer the optimum solution for the application, taking into account the customer’s needs and the site requirements. To facilitate this, KEE provides the services of its Process Engineers to evaluate the site requirements and the treatment objectives. KEE wastewater treatment technologies include Submerged Aerated Filters (SAF), Rotating Biological Contactors (RBC), Extended Aeration Activated Sludge Treatment Plant, Sequencing Batch Reactor Activated Sludge Plants, Oxidation Ditch, Ultra-Fine Filtration Modules, Dispersed Air Flotation (DAF and Microfloat) and Anaerobic Reactor for treatment of high-strength industrial wastewaters. The suitability of any one, or a combination of these technologies and unit operations, will be assessed to arrive at the most optimised solutions.

KEE has introduced various features in the hardware offering the above technologies and these include:

  • Patented Managed Flow features in the system enabling hydraulic and organic attenuation of loads.
  • Removable fine bubble membrane diffusers in SAF Systems without the need to remove the media or empty the tank.
  • Highly efficient and cost effective dispersed air Microfloat® System for removal of fat, oil, grease, suspended solids, BOD and COD from industrial wastewater discharge.
    Introduction of high-efficiency surface-mounted dual mode processor designed to provide efficient mixing and fine bubble aeration of deep basin activated sludge systems.

A good and well-executed engineered solution for treatment of wastewater is only part of the total ongoing requirement for our clients. To complete the package, KEE also offers its clients the basic service and maintenance of hardware and equipment, or can take over the total operation and maintenance of the plant on behalf of the client. The objective for KEE is to provide their customers with the lowest lifetime cost solution and KEE rises to the challenge by offering to operate the plant at a fixed price. This gives the client complete peace of mind. KEE also offers to operate and maintain plants supplied by other manufacturers after an initial survey and evaluation of the system already installed.

The Literature site  includes a complete set of KEE literature and Press information on all their technology and services offered, including KEE NuDisc®, KEE EnviroSAF, KEE Microfloat® Dispersed Air Flotation System and the Triton® Dual Mode Processor for aeration and mixing of activated sludge in conventional and extended aeration plants and oxidation ditches.

To see the capabilities of the KEE Group of companies please visit the KEE Group website.

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KEE SERVICES LIMITED – THE ONE-STOP-SHOP for Service, Operation and Maintenance for all Wastewater Treatment Assets.

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KEE Services, part of the KEE Group recognises that the correct management, service and maintenance of sewage and wastewater assets is both an important and a specialised task. With its extensive ‘In-House’ capabilities, KEE Services is able to provide the effective management, service and maintenance of all types of sewage treatment and wastewater technologies and pumping stations. Furthermore, it is able to provide a professional and cost-effective service to its UK-wide customers.

Located across the UK, its 24 regional service engineers have the extensive knowledge and experience necessary to protect customers’ investment and the environment, whilst prolonging the lifespan of equipment. KEE Services further supports its customers during out-of-hours periods by offering a 24-hour manned emergency call-out service.

KEE’s core business capabilities for the management, operation, service and maintenance, of the wastewater industry cover:

  • Sewage and wastewater treatment plants
  • Pumping stations
  • Grease management systems for commercial kitchen facilities
  • Tanker and jetting operations
  • Drainage clearance.

In addition to its ‘Core’ business, KEE is also able to provide a UK-wide service and maintenance role :

  • Water softening plant
  • Clean water booster plant.

KEE Services has over 60 years of experience in the management, service and maintenance of over 8000 UK sites, encompassing a wide range of sewage and wastewater treatment technologies. With its Headquarters based in Aston Clinton, KEE Services has five Regional Service Centres in the UK, providing flexible and tailor-made service, operation and maintenance packages to meet specific customer requirements, as below:

Premier Contract

The ‘Premier’ service contract includes routine and planned inspection of the wastewater treatment plant. Service visits include the inspection, adjustment and maintenance of electro-mechanical items, assessment of the treatment process and effluent quality.

With this basic service package, any spare parts required are charged as extras, with breakdown call-outs being charged separately for labour and travel costs.

Elite Contract

The ‘Elite’ service contract provides complete peace of mind as annual budgeting is made easier.  There are no hidden or extra costs at all.   Included in this package is the same level of electro-mechanical inspection as offered with the ‘Premier’ service contract. In addition, the ‘Elite’ service contract covers for all the following items:

  • Travel costs
  • Labour costs
  • Consumable items
  • Spare parts
  • Emergency breakdown call out.

Managed Contract
Can include PPM, Servicing and Plant Operation

For customers who have multiple sites or large single wastewater installations, KEE Services offers a fully comprehensive contract for the complete operation of these plants.  Each O&M contract is assigned a dedicated Contracts Engineer who reports directly to the client on all aspects of the treatment plant.

Additional special tasks can include desludging, laboratory sampling. jetting etc.

A maintenance log book is kept on site and updated with every visit providing the assurance that the plant is being effectively managed and receiving the necessary maintenance required to achieve optimum operating conditions.

Call 01296 634500 to discuss what we can do for you, or go to the KEE Services website for more information.

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KEE REVITALISE OXIDATION DITCHES WITH THEIR DUAL MODE TRITON AERATOR/MIXER PROCESSOR

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The KEE patented Dual Mode Processor called the Triton Aerator/Mixer is new technology that overcomes the previous limitations of oxidation ditch technology and can be used to revitalise existing oxidation ditches and technology.

Oxidation ditch technology is one of the oldest ways of treating wastewater. Whilst it enables wastewater to be treated to a high standard, including nitrification and denitrification, it does have significant limitations.

The process requires aerated and mixed liquor to continuously move through the aeration ditch. Brush rotors and disc rotors aerate and mix the liquor but, because they can only maintain the necessary fluid velocity of 0.3 – 0.4 m/s in a shallow depth of no more than 2m, the footprint area of the oxidation ditch is extremely large.

The KEE Triton Aerator and Mixer Aerator is an energy efficient, dual mode (aeration and mixing) process aerator that is capable of nitrification and denitrification all in one unit.  With two propellers and a regenerative blower, it is able to operate either as an anoxic mixer with the blower turned off, or a very efficient aerator/mixer with the blower turned on.

With its two mixing propellers, the Triton is able to achieve significant velocities in depths of up to 10m. This means the oxidation ditch basin can now be built up to 10m deep, therefore significantly reducing the footprint area.

The Triton Aerator/Mixer’s primary and secondary propellers inject air bubbles (defined by the Environmental Protection Agency as “fine bubble”) into a high velocity stream (plume) below the surface of the water and provide flow linkage mixing in multiple unit arrangements.

The Triton can also be used to revitalise existing oxidation ditch systems with failing brushes or disc rotors.  If the rotors have totally failed, the Triton can replace them.

image description

Triton Mixing Velocities

triton-02
Oxidation Ditch with Nitrification, Denitrification and Aerobic Sludge Digestion.

CASE STUDY

Franklin’s plant has two oxidation ditch systems operating in parallel, each of which treats 4536 m³/day, with influent BOD of 185 mg/l and TSS of 90 mg/l.  The Oxidation Ditch Wastewater Treatment Plant at Franklin was failing to meet the consent of 15mg/l BOD and 23 mg/l TSS. Because the rotors required daily lubrication, maintaining them was a time consuming and costly exercise. So when the rotors fractured and failed four years ago, the decision was made to upgrade the plant by replacing the brush rotors with the Triton Aerator/Mixer.

triton-03
Triton Aerators at the Franklin Wastewater treatment Plant help to produce
an effluent BOD of 2 to 3mg/l.

During the upgrade each ditch was fitted with four Triton each rated 18.6 kW.  This represents a maximum of just over 2 kWh of electrical energy per kg of BOD or 0.4 kWh/m³ flow.

The final effluent quality from the refurbished oxidation ditch is testimony to the excellence of the Triton. The result of the upgrade was final effluent with BOD of between 2 and 3 mg/l and TSS well below 15 mg/l. Independent velocity measurements at extremities are well above the minimum 0.3 m/sec, therefore guaranteeing that no solids deposit would develop in the basin.  At the same time, maintenance requirements have been substantially reduced to a simple lubrication task once every six months.

oxidation_ditchOxidation Ditch with Nitrification, Denitrification and Aerobic Sludge Digestion. The Triton with its two mixing propellers is able to to achieve significant velocities in depths of up to 10m. This means the oxidation ditch basin can now be built up to 10m deep, therefore significantly reducing the footprint area.

Alternatively, if the rotors are still in good working order but the plant is failing to meet treatment objectives due to lack of dissolved oxygen and/or mixing of the oxidation ditch aerators, Triton can be used in conjunction with the rotors to improve dissolved oxygen levels and mixing.

To see the capabilities of the KEE Group of companies please visit the KEE Group website

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KEE EXPERIENCE IN IRELAND

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KEE Wastewater Treatment and Disposal

KEE are a major supplier of process engineered treatment systems and have been heavily involved with Water Services and Local Councils in Ireland for supply and upgrade of wastewater treatment facilities.  The applications vary from simple Municipal wastewater treatment plants providing basic treatment to supplying plants which are designed to produce very high quality effluent with phosphorus and total nitrogen reduction.  In many cases the requirements are for less than 3 mg/l of ammoniacal nitrogen associated with less than 5mg/l BOD and Suspended Solids.

Having been involved with supplying many Municipal wastewater treatment plants in Northern Ireland for sites at Kinallen, Fivemiletown, Bergah, Ballinamallard, Fintona, Lisbellaw, Caledon, Lislea and many more, KEE are also working with Councils in Eire to upgrade treatment plants to facilitate discharge of highly polluted industrial effluent into their system.

Municipal wastewater treatment plants are able to accommodate and treat industrial discharges if these are taken into account at the design stage.  However, when the industrial discharge is intermittent and imposes sudden shock loads onto an otherwise overloaded Municipal facility, KEE have been able to offer solutions to overcome such  problems.  This includes upgrading the Municipal facility without much upheaval and also offering partial treatment of the industrial discharge at source to overcome the problems.  This is particularly the case with Municipal facilities which become oxygen limited in the activated sludge stage.  The solution is to install their versatile dual mode TRITON® processor which provides mixing and/or dissolved oxygen into the mixed liquor.  It is also possible to use the KEE DISPERSED AIR FLOATATION (DAF) MICROFLOAT® SYSTEM to provide partial on-site treatment to the industrial discharge to reduce the load discharged into the sewer.  KEE have used TRITON® Aerator to upgrade an overloaded Municipal plant in Scotland to accommodate loads generated from Distillery and are in the process of upgrading a Dairy Plant to upgrade the aeration system using TRITON® Aerator and to include biological phosphorus removal and reduce fat and grease by installing the KEE DAF system upstream of the biological process. “The polluter pays” and it therefore follows that those Industries which discharge large quantities of heavily polluted wastewaters into the sewer should consider the options of on-site treatment to reduce their costs and the loads on the Municipal treatment facilities.  The treatment options which should be considered are Physical, Physical/chemical or biological treatment or a combination of all or any of these.

KEE-microfloat-01  KEE-microfloat-03              KEE MICROFLOAT® SYSTEM

Triton   kee_triton      KEE TRITON® AERATION/MIXING

KEE have built many facilities in Ireland to include phosphorus and total nitrogen removal with simplicity of process design and operation thus embracing the KEE philosophy of offering low lifetime cost solutions.

The KEE Group of Companies, can offer such an option.  Their technologies include physio-chemical processes (Dispersed Air Floatation, simple gravity solids and grease separators), Anaerobic Reactors (for high strength wastewaters), Fixed Film Reactors (RBC & SAF) and Suspended Growth Reactors (activated sludge processes -Extended Aeration, Oxidation Ditch, SBR, Extended Aeration followed by Ultra Fine Filtration), and on-site operation of the treatment plant.  KEE also have a team of experienced process engineers and project engineers capable of delivering the necessary turnkey solution to suit most customers.

oxidation_ditch  NuSAF-01
OXIDATION DITCH                                            KEE ENVIROSAF

Okee-rbcs                                 KEE ROTATING BIOLOGICAL CONTACTORS (RBC)

To see the capabilities of the KEE Group of companies please visit the KEE Group website

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KEE is a globally recognised brand operating within in the industrial, commercial and domestic wastewater treatment industries. KEE’s specialist knowledge and expertise is derived from over 60 years’ experience in the design, development, manufacture, install, commissioning, operation, refurbishment, repair and maintenance of wastewater treatment systems and equipment, including:

  • Fixed Film Reactors: Rotating Biological Contactors (RBCs), Packaged RBC Systems, Moving Bed Biological Reactors (MBBR) and Submerged Aerated Filters (SAF).
  • Suspended Growth Reactors: Extended Aeration, Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR), Oxidation Ditch, IFAS process technologies and Anaerobic Biological Reactor (ABR) for high strength industrial waste.
  • ‘Turn Key’ Solutions: Technical Design, Project Appraisal & Management, Process Engineering, Plant Installation & Operation, Equipment Refurbishment & Upgrades and Plant Rental. KEE also provide approved spares and ancillary products such as Final Clarifiers and Settlement Tanks.

KEE Services Ltd specialise in maintenance & repair services for all makes and types of wastewater treatment systems & pumping stations. Our nationwide team of directly employed, regional engineers and technicians are KEE trained, DBS checked and British Water Certified.