Marylands First BioMag Project is a Resounding Success

I am wrapping up work on the BioMag Demonstration Project for the State of Maryland and Washington County in the town of Cascade, MD for Cambridge Water Technologies (CWT). I've spent the good part of seven months on site working with CWT and the operations staff. The project endured one of the coldest winters on record in Maryland with record snowfalls and inhospitable working conditions until lately. The project was not without its challenges however. We had to construct a 4 stage Bardenpho wastewater treatment facility out of an existing aerobic digester and utilize a primary clarifier as our secondary clarifier. A large number of temporary hoses, pumps and wiring needed to be installed in October of 2009. By February 2010, the facility was seeded and charged with magnetite and all of the bugs worked out to the point where reliable and accurate data began being recorded. The picture on the right is the BioMag reactor's first three stages of treatment. Notice the black color of the activated sludge which is a result of the biomass being impregnated with magnetite.


Since February the demonstration project has performed extremely well. Plant performance was as follows:


Influent

BOD 250mg/L
TSS 120 mg/L
TKN 40 mg/L
TP 2.0 mg/L


Effluent

BOD <2.0 mg/L
TSS <2.0 mg/L
TN <2.0 mg/L
TP <0.1 mg/L


The plant has performed so well that the State of Maryland is considering this technology as a replacement for denitrification filters throughout the State. Not only does BioMag allow for a significant improvement in quality of effluent but the quantity of influent treated is increased substantially which makes it very attractive to budget strapped owners. Keep in mind that this project has no filters following the secondary clarifier. This performance is very typical of a BioMag project as demonstrated already in Sturbridge, MA in 2008 and Upper Gwynedd Township, PA in 2009.



Cambridge Water Technologies has two full scale BioMag facilities under construction in Sturbridge, MA and Allenstown, NH. Both facilities will be upgraded to BioMag and will be on line sometime in 2011.
This picture on the left is of Steve Woodard , inventor of BioMag and employee of CWT, A Maryland Department of the Environment (MDDOE) employee, and yours truly. This picture was taken during a tour of the BioMag equipment after a presentation of data to MDDOE, engineers and the owner of the Cascade, MD facility.


Its worth mentioning that this Maryland project would not have been such a success without the help of the staff at the Winebrenner WWTF. Mike the CPO and operators, Mark, Robin and Ryan performed like they have been working with activated sludge their entire life. Fact is, Winebrenner has RBC's for biological treatment and the combined total of activated sludge experience between the four of them was less than 5 years. So a huge thank you goes to them for plowing snow, shoveling snow and performing about 7,000 grab tests during this trial.

2010 Project Update

I wrapped up the Shelton CT project several months ago. The project continues to have success with total nitrogen however an important equipment problems still exists. The customer and their consulting engineer are currently working towards a resolution of the problem.

I began two pilot projects with Cambridge Water Technologies (CWT) at the end of 2009. One project was located in Mystic, CT and was considered a success by the owner and their consulting engineer. This project ended in January 2010 and is currently moving towards full design.

The other CWT project is located in MD. This project continues to challenge everyone involved. We have a basic 4 stage Bardenpho process treating a side stream flow. This side stream flow is very weak due to inflow and is very cold with temperatures averaging 7 degrees celcius in January. Project goals include meeting a TN limit of 3 ppm with traditional loadings. The project continues to move ahead and I will provide an update in the near future.

CWT is growing rapidly and I hope to work closely with them in MD, TX and FL in 2010. I might even hire some employees by the end of the year.