Techniques

In the UASB reactor, organic material is converted into biogas by bacteria under oxygen-free conditions. This way, considerable energy savings are made as no aeration is required. Furthermore, sludge production is very limited and green energy is produced.

The Upflow Anaerobic Sludge Blanket (UASB) process is a widely used method in the biological treatment of concentrated wastewater streams. DeSaH has drastically simplified the UASB reactor, allowing small reactors to be built cost-effectively. The smallest reactor is only 1000L, but of course (much) larger reactors can also be built.
The UASB process is used to treat various concentrated wastewater streams.

Advantages of the UASB reactor

• available in small volumes
• highly efficient removal of organic material
• production of biogas, a renewable energy source
• well insulated, reduction of heat demand
• corrosion-free design
• fully accessible for inspection and cleaning
• closed system: no odour emissions

The OLAND process is a cost-effective and sustainable way to remove ammonium from wastewater. Compared to conventional biological processes, this process leads to operational cost savings of up to 60%, while greatly reducing the amount of sludge to be spilt.

With traditional nitrogen removal, more oxygen is required so that all the ammonium (NH4+) is converted to nitrate (NO3-) using oxygen. In the OLAND process, about half of the ammonium (NH4+) is converted to nitrite (NO2-)and Anammox bacteria convert the ammonium and nitrite to nitrogen gas.
DeSaH applies a Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC, also known as biorotor) for the OLAND process and has greatly improved the reactor design to be able to deploy the OLAND process already on a small scale. The smallest reactor is only 500L, but of course (much) larger reactors can also be built.

The OLAND process is used to treat various nitrogen-rich wastewater streams.

Advantages of the OLAND reactor

• available in small volumes
• highly efficient nitrogen removal
• well insulated, reduction of heat demand
• modular
• fully accessible for inspection and cleaning
• simple process control

The struvite reactor is used to recover phosphate from concentrated wastewater streams as struvite. Phosphate is becoming scarce, making recovery increasingly interesting. Struvite precipitation is a cost-effective technology compared to, for example, addition of iron salts, mainly because of significantly cheaper chemicals consumed and because the residual product has a positive value rather than being a major cost item. Thus, the struvite produced is an excellent slow-release fertiliser for N, P and Mg.

In the struvite reactor, magnesium (Mg2+), phosphate (PO43-) and ammonium (NH4+) or potassium (K+) are converted into struvite. By adding magnesium oxide (MgCl), phosphate and ammonium settle as struvite (MgNH4PO4.6H20 or MAP). DeSaH applies an upflow reactor for struvite precipitation and has modified the reactor design to make it suitable for small amounts of wastewater already. The smallest reactor is suitable to process 200 L/d, but of course (much) larger reactors can also be built.
Struvite precipitation is used to treat various phosphate-rich (50 mg/l PO4-P) wastewater streams.

Advantages of the struvite reactor

• good quality struvite
• struvite with the same shape as fertiliser granules
• deployable from small quantities of waste water
• simple process control