World's Largest SBR/BNR Wastewater-treatment System Operating

The SBR-type wastewater-treatment plant has been operating successfully since November in Kunming, People's Republic of China. The ABJ Iceas process, marketed by Water Pollution Control Corp., is designed to process 300,000 m3/d (80-MGD) of domestic and light industrial wastewater at the Kunming No. 3 plant. The plant complements another ABJ system, the Kunming You Guang Qiao Sewage Treatment Plant. That plant, designed to treat 180,000 m3/d (48 MGD), began operating in September.

Both facilities use the intermittent cycle extended aeration system (Iceas)--a sequential batch-reactor system. The ABJ-developed system time-sequences aeration, anoxic/anaerobic mixing, settling, and decanting within a single basin. This process, according to the company, enables high-treatment rates in a compact, economical design. Also the systems independent basin operation allows adding more plants in parallel to expand total capacity.

The Kunming No. 3 project, incorporates a total of 14 basins, each 44 m long by 32 m wide. The basins contain a total of 44,000 Sanitaire fine-bubble membrane diffusers, which account for the plant's enhanced oxygen transfer efficiency and low operating costs. An additional 27,000 Sanitaire fine-bubble membrane diffusers serve the Kunming You Guang Qiao project.

Broken Hill Properties, Ltd. of Sydney, Australia performed civil engineering and project management. Hua Au Biotechnology, of Shanghai, China, completed the design engineering.