ARTICLE
BioCord® Reactors demonstrate robust cold-weather nitrification
A community in northern Alberta, with a population of approximately 1,100 residents, operates a two-cell lagoon system that receives an average flow of 975 m3/day (0.26 million gallons/day).
A recent amendment to the facility’s community’s discharge permit reduced the ammonia limit to less than 1 mg/L, which was beyond the lagoons’ existing treatment capabilities. With a limited budget, the municipality had to rethink its wastewater treatment process. The town needed a treatment solution that would enhance ammonia removal within its existing lagoons despite Alberta’s cold winters to avoid the cost of expanding the lagoons or adding a complex mechanical plant.
Optimizing lagoon performance with BioCord®
BioCord Reactors are essentially condominiums for bacteria. The BioCord media offers an optimized environment for nitrifying bacteria to establish and remain active , particularly in cold climates like northern Alberta. Designed to be installed in lagoons, BioCord Reactors can be installed directly into a lagoon cell to align with the semi-passive operation and improve year-round ammonia removal.
Bishop Water operated a wintertime containerised system on site from October 9th, 2024, to March 26th, 2025, to demonstrate BioCord’s nitrification performance and collect site-specific data to inform full-scale design. A 40-foot sea container was shipped to the site, equipped with three BioCord Reactors, a feed pump, transfer pump, three 0.5 hp compressors, along with probes and sensors.
The system demonstrated and monitored ammonia removal under average and extremely low wastewater temperatures while tracking other important performance parameters such as alkalinity, pH, dissolved oxygen (DO), and total suspended solids (TSS).
Proven ammonia removal performance under cold-weather conditions
After a four-week acclimatisation period to establish a robust, steady-state biofilm, the results were consistent: the BioCord Reactors removed enough ammonia to meet the new discharge limits while increasing dissolved oxygen and maintaining the alkalinity and pH levels.
Ammonia removal exceeded 99% for much of the trial, reducing influent concentration from an average of 18 mg/L to as low as 0.02 mg/L. The average effluent ammonia concentration was 0.87 mg/L, comfortably below the 1 mg/L permit limit.
The system consistently removed 50 grams of ammonia per day, even when the wastewater temperatures remained below 2 °C (28 °F) for several weeks. No supplemental alkalinity was necessary.
BioCord Reactors demonstrated consistent cold-weather ammonia removal from late November onwards, when influent water temperature was consistently below 2°C. A compressor was replaced in early December, which caused a brief pause in treatment. However ammonia removal was quickly restored once aeration resumed, demonstrating the resiliency and responsiveness of the BioCord biofilm.
Contact us to learn how BioCord Reactors could improve your lagoons’ performance.
