OLD SPOILT WINE IN NEW BOTTLES
BACKGROUND
The old adage goes : You can fool some people all the time, …… etc. etc. you know how it ends.?Recently I happened across three instances of “Modern” STP technologies where foolish consultants (read Plumbing consultants and commission agents) and their favoured vendors (Commission givers) colluded to fool innocent, gullible Builders. ?In Pune, In Hyderabad and in Bangalore. Goes to show you can find such instances in every city in India.
?1. THE RMBR STP – (also known as the RBC nearly 50 years ago) For those who need a primer on the history of Sewage treatment plant technologies, the RBC – Rotating Biological Contactor was developed in the early 1970s by the Autotrol Corporation of Wisconsin in the USA.?The definitive Handbook on RBC technology was authored by Mr. R.L Antonie of the same company and published by the CRC press. Those of you familiar with CRC publications will no doubt appreciate the value and authenticity of the contents. The book is a compendium of years of painstaking study, research, knowledge gained from empirical data from scores of actual installations and not just another theoretical academic exercise. R L Antonie, a true blue Chemical Engineer from U. of Wisconsin Madison.?Remember Bird, Stuart and Lightfoot I had written about some time ago in this very column.
I have studied this pathbreaking work from cover to cover. But the two Mini RBC plants I designed failed exactly as predicted in his book by Mr. Antonie - Mechanical shaft failure
And, Just like in the MBBR – the Moving bed variant of the RBC, developed by Hallvard Odegaard in the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology a couple of decades later, The RBC also calls for a Primary Sedimentation stage.?Please see flowsheet of RBC displayed below.
And Now the RMBR –( Rotating Media Bioreactor??) the so called New Kid on the Block.?What Is new about a technology more than 50 years old ? It is the same old dissipated wine in a new bottle with a different label and without a Date of Manufacture.?As an experienced Chemical and Environmental Engineer, I have no hesitation in sharing with you the Date of Expiry – it is Right here and Now.
2. POWDERED ACTIVATED CARBON TREATMENT (PACT)
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?I was flummoxed recently when I happened across a proposal for PACT system combined with an SBR STP.?It dawned on me then that this was the very same agency which went from a poorly designed SBR to an even more absurd Pseudo SBR to reduce footprint, reduce energy at the cost of treatment, constantly preying on greedy and gullible takers for “Cheap” STPs.?
?Just for the record, the PACT technology was developed in the 1970’s by Dupont and like a similar sister technology - the Wet Air Oxidation (WAO) or the Zimpro process, it was simply way too high tech, lubugriously contrived, and I suspect militated against all fundamental principles of chemical Thermodynamics which rendered these processes unviable.?It involved addition of Powdered Activated Carbon in the Aeration tank of an Activated Sludge system, and principally developed keeping in mind difficult to treat industrial wastewaters such as in the Bulk Drugs industry, Petrochemicals etc – Certainly not meant for weak, and extremely easily biodegradeable domestic sewage. The PACT technology never got off the ground, and it is said there are about 100 such installations in the whole wide world today after nearly 50 years of being in existence.?That to me tells a story.?There are over 2700 STPs in the City of Bangalore itself, all of them based on simple biological treatment.?No “Modern” PACT technology needed here.?And even the PACTs I have seen are for the standard Activated sludge process – Not for SBR.
Sometimes it really makes me wonder whether these blokes really understand any technology at all.?I guess there are enough foolish buyers driven purely by greed to take such absurd technology offerings.
?Footnote : Recently I was in discussion with a Builder trying to promote the tried, tested and proven EAAS STP technology in the context of all his past failures experimenting with Anaerobic STP, SBR, MBBR, RMBR etc.?The failure of his STPs had taught him only one thing – Keep operational costs low.?Why throw Good money after Bad was his logic. I simply walked out of the meeting not wanting to argue with this “Expert” on various failed STP technologies who refused to understand and accept that his dysfunctional, defunct STPs could be turned around. Ecotech is the expert in STP surgeries with a 100 % success record. And when Ecotech talks People listen. And this man just would not listen.
?Dr. Ananth S Kodavasal
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?Business Development specialist in water & wastewater treatment, and sludge management
5 年WoW