ARTICLE
BioCord Reactors set to provide enhanced ammonia removal for Limoges WWTF
Bishop BioCord™ Reactors are in place at the lagoons of the Limoges WWTF as part of a $10-million project, designed and managed by R.V Anderson Associates Limited, to upgrade the plant’s capacity and performance. The simple, low-energy BioCord Reactors, in combination with other upgrades, will enable the Limoges WWTF to achieve enhanced ammonia removal in cold-weather conditions and alter its operation from intermittent discharge to continuous discharge.
Once the upgrades and operational changes are in place, the Limoges WWTF will more than double its rated treatment capacity, increasing from 1,500 m3/day to 3,500 m3/day. As a result, The Nation Municipality can extend the life and capacity of the Limoges WWTF to accommodate community growth and avoid the need to build a complex mechanical treatment plant, which would come with higher capital and operating costs.
Sixty (60) BioCord Reactors were installed this month, by general contractor Thomas Fuller Construction, into two new lagoon cells that were created by dividing a large existing cell. Baffle curtains will be installed next, to direct wastewater through a channel that provides maximum contact with the BioCord media and prevents short circuiting. Each BioCord Reactor will also be connected to an air manifold that will power its integrated microbubble aeration system, which provides mixing and high oxygen transfer to the biofilm.
BioCord advantages
The BioCord system uses strands of densely arranged loops of polymer fibers suspended from free-standing frames to provide a massive surface area on which preferred, naturally occurring bacteria can grow. This attached-growth process offers many advantages that include low energy requirements, simple operation and maintenance and resistance to washout during high hydraulic loading.
A close up of a BioCord Reactor shows the BioCord media prior to installation (left) and after a robust, concentrated biofilm of preferred microorganisms has been established (right).
With an optimized BioCord system, wastewater lagoons can accept greater nutrient loading, decrease retention times and improve effluent quality—especially in cold-weather conditions, when treatment typically becomes more difficult for conventional lagoon systems.
We are grateful for the dedication and teamwork of our project partners, RV Anderson Associates Ltd. and Thomas Fuller Construction, to deliver the largest BioCord project to date for a wastewater lagoon upgrade.
