Increased Solids Destruction

A full scale plant was installed on a trial basis at a Mansfield Wastewater Treatment Plant, near Birmingham in the UK. This installation operated from end June until end October 2003. This Wastewater Treatment Plant serves a population equivalent of approximately 150,000. There are two mesophilic anaerobic digesters of 1,975m3 capacity at the site with an average retention time of 14 days. The sonix™ unit treated the thickened waste activated sludge feed to both digesters. This comprised only 20 - 25% of the digester feed load by mass. Changes in digester performance were compared before (baseline), during (trial) and after sonix™ operation.

The graph above demonstrates the increase in solids destruction across the digesters once sonix™ was installed and operational. The average solids destruction increased from approximately 32% to 48%. On trial completion, sonix™ operation ceased and the solids destruction was seen to decrease. The higher solids destruction across the digestion plant also resulted in more gas production. An increase of approximately 40% was seen once the unit was fully optimised.