Effective Wastewater Treatment with Energy Recovery
Anaerobic wastewater treatment breaks down organic pollutants in the absence of oxygen. Unlike aerobic treatment, which incurs high energy costs for aeration, this process produces valuable biogas. This process is the ideal choice for highly contaminated wastewater, helping to reduce operating costs and improve your site’s carbon footprint.
While aerobic processes consume a massive amount of energy for aeration, anaerobic technology produces valuable biogas. You can burn this directly in your boilers or use it in a combined heat and power plant to generate electricity and heat. Your wastewater treatment plant will go from being a cost driver to a power plant.
Anaerobic bacteria derive their energy from the breakdown of organic matter into CO2, which results in significantly slower growth than in aerobic cultures. The result: Up to 90% less excess sludge is produced. You’ll save a lot on disposal and transportation costs—a crucial factor given today’s prices.
High-performance reactors allow us to treat extremely high organic loads (COD) in a very small footprint. This is ideal for sites where there isn’t enough space for large, shallow aeration tanks.
Our anaerobic systems are designed to handle fluctuating industrial influent loads (e.g., following cleaning processes or campaign runs) in a stable manner. Once established, the biological system is extremely robust and requires little maintenance.
Every industrial process leaves specific traces in the water. As part of our anaerobic wastewater treatment process, we analyze your specific contaminants and select the optimal combination of processes to not only safely remove these substances but also convert them into a valuable energy source for your operations.
Not all wastewater is immediately “ready for anaerobic treatment.” In our laboratory, we determine the exact energy potential of your wastewater through specific fermentation tests. We combine the appropriate pre-treatment and post-treatment processes in such a way that even problematic substances are reliably separated. Focus on other contaminants? We have a solution for that, too. We integrate the anaerobic stage as a highly efficient component into a comprehensive treatment system that reliably handles all of your wastewater streams.
Anaerobic treatment is most effective at breaking down high loads of COD and BOD. Compared to aerobic treatment, the energy balance is positive: during the anaerobic degradation of the COD load, methane is produced as a metabolic byproduct, which is used to generate energy.
The result: a drastic reduction in your discharge fees while simultaneously producing carbon-neutral energy.
In an anaerobic system, oils and fats are problematic because they can coat the active bacterial pellets and block their metabolism. If necessary, we remove fats and oils from the wastewater stream using a preliminary treatment stage. This is how we ensure that the microorganisms in the reactor convert only the dissolved organic matter into biogas, without being inhibited by fats and oils.
The anaerobic process in the reactor already provides a natural barrier against many aerobic microorganisms due to the exclusion of oxygen and the specific process temperatures. By combining this with various intermediate stages, we can achieve a level of water quality that allows for safe recirculation even in industries with stringent hygiene requirements.
Dissolved organic compounds are ideally suited for anaerobic treatment. Our specialized bacteria break down these substances through a multi-step process (from hydrolysis to methanation). The key advantages over conventional aerobic wastewater treatment plants: Up to 90% less excess sludge is produced, which significantly reduces your disposal costs. At the same time, the organic waste is converted into valuable biogas. Here’s how to use your wastewater as an energy source and achieve a demonstrably positive energy balance.
To ensure that we remain well below strict nitrate and nitrite limits, we take a holistic approach to the processes in your facility. Through a carefully controlled process, harmful nitrogen compounds are reliably converted into harmless elemental nitrogen ($N_2$) and are released as a gas. This ensures that you comply with even the strictest environmental regulations in a legally sound manner.
At the heart of our technology is the conversion of dissolved pollutants into valuable energy—all without the high power consumption of conventional aeration.
Before the wastewater enters the high-performance reactor, it is collected and equalized in a tank. This unit houses the hydrolysis and acidification stages. There, complex organic compounds (such as sugar or starch) are broken down into simple organic acids.
The result: A stable pH level and a consistent temperature protect the sensitive biological system in the main reactor from shocks caused by fluctuations in the quality and quantity of the wastewater feed, and ensure constant gas production.
The heart of the plant: In the anaerobic reactor, specialized bacterial pellets convert the dissolved acids directly into biogas in the absence of oxygen. A targeted upward current keeps the biomass suspended, allowing it to operate with high efficiency.
The result: Maximum cleaning performance (COD reduction) with minimal space requirements. Unlike aerobic processes, this results in a positive energy balance and produces virtually no excess sludge.
At the top of the reactor, a three-phase separator separates the purified water from the biogas produced and the bacterial pellets. The biogas is extracted from the top, while the bacterial pellets are retained in the system.
The result: You get clean process water for discharge or reuse, while at the same time generating your own heat or electricity from the biogas produced.
The biogas produced in the separation system is a high-quality energy source that must be purified to remove moisture and impurities before it can be utilized. The raw gas is prepared for use in a compact purification stage. This prevents corrosion damage to your equipment. This turns your wastewater into a clean and economically viable source of energy.
The wastewater flows through a compact pellet sludge bed from bottom to top, while an integrated three-phase separator in the reactor head separates biogas, water, and biomass by weight. Since the system operates entirely without moving parts, maintenance requirements and OPEX are reduced to a minimum. At moderate upflow velocities, the UASB reactor offers maximum process stability and a high tolerance for particulate matter.
Targeted wastewater recirculation increases the upward flow velocity. As a result, the granulated sludge bed expands into a slightly fluidized state. From a process engineering perspective, this dynamic maximizes mass transfer between the biomass and the wastewater. You benefit from a drastically reduced footprint and the flexibility to reliably handle even highly fluctuating feed concentrations.
This two-stage, high-performance system uses the biogas generated in the inlet to drive a self-sufficient Mammut pump via an internal riser pipe. The mixture is degassed at the top of the reactor and flows back down by gravity. The clever design eliminates the need for external pumps and achieves extremely high flow rates. This allows for maximum CSB loading per unit area while minimizing the footprint and prevents any channeling from forming in the sludge bed.
Spaleck Wassertechnik GmbH
Robert-Bosch-Str. 6
46397 Bocholt
Phone: +49 2871 2134 – 0
E-mail: info@spaleck.de
This modern wastewater treatment process offers a highly efficient solution for wastewater with a high organic load. We will work with you to determine, through an initial analysis, whether your specific cargo and temperature conditions are optimally suited for energy recovery. The system reliably reduces pollutants, lowers operating costs, and produces valuable biogas.
In metal processing, highly contaminated effluents are often generated from degreasing baths or emulsion separation. While conventional methods reach their limits here, the anaerobic stage of our comprehensive solution efficiently breaks down organic additives and surfactants.
Whether it's whey, sugar residues, or organic suspended solids, your wastewater is a high-energy raw material. Our reactors convert these waste streams into valuable methane gas that you can use directly in production.
Frequent product changes result in fluctuating wastewater compositions with high concentrations of organic matter. SPALECK's anaerobic biology is designed to reliably handle these peak loads and ensure the success of your entire water treatment system.
In chemical production, wastewater is often highly concentrated but readily biodegradable. Anaerobic pretreatment drastically reduces the COD load before the water is sent to the final treatment stage via additional SPALECK water treatment systems or discharged into the public sewer system.
The production of paper and cardboard consumes enormous amounts of water and energy. Through the anaerobic treatment of recirculating water, we keep your water fresh while recovering energy at the same time.
Every process is unique. Even if your industry isn't listed here, we'll analyze your specific wastewater parameters in our in-house laboratory to identify the right components for your customized water treatment solution.
If you have any questions about SPALECK water technology, our team of experts will be happy to assist you.
Here are some questions about SPALECK water technology. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us.
This is one of the biggest efficiency advantages: Anaerobic bacteria grow significantly slower than aerobic bacteria. As a result, up to 90% less excess sludge is produced. This drastically reduces your costs for sludge dewatering and disposal and noticeably eases the burden on your logistics operations. In addition, there is the opportunity to market the resulting bacterial pellets.
We build customized wastewater treatment plants. We pay attention to modularity and accessibility in our in-house design. This means that the system remains flexible enough to grow with your company or to be technologically upgraded.
Anaerobic microorganisms are very resilient. They can be put into a “dormant state” for a certain period of time. When production is resumed, the reactors return to full capacity within a short time. We configure the system to suit your individual processes.
The key advantage lies in the energy balance. While aerobic processes require a lot of electricity for aeration, anaerobic systems produce valuable biogas. In addition, significantly less sewage sludge is generated, which drastically reduces your disposal costs. In short: You transform your wastewater load into a source of energy.
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