Upgrading of a biological treatment plant for beverage wastewater in Malaysia

In order to comply with stricter wastewater discharge limits, the industrial wastewater treatment plant was fully upgraded in 2018.

CONCEPTUAL FORMULATION

The main task was to expand the existing wastewater treatment plant, which consisted of a simple equalization basin with mechanical pre-treatment and biological partial treatment, in order to reduce the high organic load of the wastewater.

The main challenge was to make the best use of the very limited space at the plant site. To meet the effluent parameters in the limited space, the EGSB (Expanded Granular Sludge Bed) and MBR (Membrane Bio Reactor) processes were chosen:

EGSB is a biological, anaerobic treatment process in which pellet sludge is kept in a suspended condition to be continuously in contact with the wastewater. This stage of biological treatment reduces the COD load by 80-85%. In addition, the absence of aeration and biogas production saves energy.

MBR is a second biological aerobic treatment process that reduces COD load by 95 % (COD effluent < 80 mg/l). The higher concentration of aerobic sludge in this system resulted in a smaller surface area. The membranes allow a pristine effluent wastewater quality due to the complete particle retention of the membranes.