Biological Health Assessment
Health assessments can identify problems, establish a baseline, and create a proactive approach to maintaining compliance and efficient health of your system.
The more you know about your system, the better you can make it run.
Hydro Solutions is available to run a Biological Health Assessment on your anaerobic and aerobic systems and provide you a complete report to help you be proactive in the health of your system.
Anaerobic Processes
In a wastewater treatment facility, an anaerobic process uses microorganisms to break down organic waste in the absence of oxygen. We’ve developed a checklist protocol program to assess the health of these systems to optimize their efficiency and long-term life.
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Using a microscope, we determine the Floc size, Floc morphology, number of dispersed bacteria, the amount of debris, the numbers and types of filamentous bacteria, types of higher life forms, granule size/structure.
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Anaerobic Toxicity Assay (ATA) is an anaerobic Dose/Response test based on Biogas or Methane Formation Rate.
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The ATP formation rate indicates how much useful energy metabolism is occurring and indicates biomass health.
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The relative amounts of methane, carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide indicates the health of methanogenic processes.
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Changes in the profile can indicate unbalanced anaerobic conditions. The volatile organic acids we measure by GC FID include: formic, acetic, propionic, butyric, valeric, and isovaleric.
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Accumulation of Long Chain Fatty Acids can coat the biomass and reduce mass transfer of substrates and oxygen. LCFAs also contribute to foaming problems. LCFAs are also high BOD compounds and can contribute to process oxygen demand and effluent BOD. Using GC-MS we can quantify: palmitic, palmitoleic, heptadecanoic, stearic, myristic, oleic, palmitoleic, and linoleic acids.
Aerobic Processes
An aerobic process in a wastewater treatment facility utilizes oxygen-loving microbes to break down pollutants and organic matter present in the wastewater.
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Using a microscope, we determine the Floc size, Floc morphology, number of dispersed bacteria, the amount of debris, the numbers and types of filamentous bacteria, types of higher life forms.
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The ratio of VSS/TSS can indicate the amount of inorganic trash in biomass.
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Exocellular polymers are the source of natural flocculation allowing the biomass to efficiently settle. The amount of exocellular polymers should be between 8-12% of VSS.
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Not all of the biomass in a wastewater treatment process is metabolically active. Using a redox stain, we can determine the percentage of metabolically active bacteria in the process. This should be greater than 30 percent of the total bacteria.
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Oxygen uptake rate is a common measure of aerobic metabolism and its use of oxygen as its terminal electron acceptor. The OUR should be greater than 10 mg/gram VSS/hour.
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The ATP formation rate indicates how much useful energy metabolism is occurring and indicates biomass health. The ATP generation rate should be greater than 100 mg/gram VSS/hr.
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Nitrogen and phosphorous are required nutrients for wastewater process biology. The nitrogen content of the biomass should be 8- 10% of the VSS and phosphorous should be 0.8 to 1.2% of the VSS. If the nitrogen or phosphorous is too low, process performance can be adversely effected.
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Nitrifiers are very susceptible to process inhibition. Nitrification assays can be conducted in our lab to determine if chemicals or waste streams are a source of poor nitrification performance
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We can conduct a variety of tests employing respirometers to assess the effects of waste streams and process chemicals on biological wastewater treatment processes. This can confirm sources of inhibition in your plant or screen potential process chemical alternatives for potential wastewater treatment issues.
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Ammonia oxidizing and Nitrite Oxidizing bacterial counts determine the amount of each group of nitrifying bacteria. For a healthy nitrifying activated sludge, AOBs should be between 0.8-1.2% of the MLVSS and NOBs should be between 0.6-1.0% of the MLVSS.
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Nitrification and Denitrification rates are used to assess the performance of nitrifying bacteria and denitrifying bacteria in aerobic/anoxic environments. These two rates determines how much ammonia/nitrate are consumed in a certain amount of time (mg NH4-L/hr or mg NO3-L/hr).
Why Hydro Solutions?
Produce Our Own Products
We have our own lab and product engineers that monitor biological and chemical trends to create solutions to help wastewater systems run as efficient as possible.
Prepared For Emergencies
With product ready to go and our own trucking system, we’re ready when you need us in the unfortunate occurrence of an upset.
Turnkey Operation
We provide a comprehensive suite of services, eliminating the need to manage multiple vendors.
Experienced Team
Our team of experts possesses in-depth knowledge of air and water treatment technologies and regulations.
High Standards of Quality and Service
We are committed to exceeding your expectations and delivering exceptional results.
