Quality and quantity: How a BioCord frame delivers strength and value
DATE POSTED: April 29, 2021
When it’s dry, a metre of BioCord weighs almost nothing. But after it’s immersed into a wastewater system and becomes a home for a healthy, active biofilm, it really packs on bulk. Each metre of once-wispy BioCord can weigh as much as four kilograms when it’s fully populated with aerobic and anaerobic microorganisms.
A reactor frame can be fitted with more than 600 metres of BioCord, so it’s easy to see that the supporting frame must be strong to handle the dramatic increase in mass as the biofilm develops.
The Bishop Water team has tested a number of designs and materials to create the optimum BioCord frame that offers the greatest strength, reliability and service life at the lowest cost. For most applications, aluminum offers a strong, but lightweight, frame that can be customized to any size and will support the full weight of the BioCord media along with the active biofilm layer. Overall, the design of our aluminum frames offers the performance of stainless steel, but at about half the weight and half the cost.
All BioCord frames are manufactured in Canada to ensure that we can maintain tight control on quality and delivery times. It also enables us to respond quickly to orders and reduces shipping time and cost.
Our frames are assembled in a modular fashion during the manufacturing process and then prepared for shipping in a flat pack. This arrangement greatly reduces the space required for shipping and the cost. Once the frames arrive at their destination, they can be quickly assembled and then brought to site ready to install. In many cases, a BioCord system can be fully installed in just a few days, while the plant remains in operation.
Learn more about the advantages of BioCord reactors for wastewater treatment.
Contact us to discuss a BioCord pilot system for your facility.
It’s curtains for BioCord!
DATE POSTED: March 29, 2021
BioCord curtain design enables fast, easy retrofit to enhance CAS basins.
We often refer to BioCord as a condominium for bacteria, suspended in a free-standing aluminum frame that facilitates fast, easy installation into treatment lagoons.
But that’s not the only way that we can configure this versatile nutrient removal system. Another option is the curtain design that enables BioCord to be installed in concrete or steel process tanks to enhance a conventional activated sludge process. These curtains are fixed within the treatment basin, eliminating concerns of carrier washout or clogging that sometimes arise with similar MBBR systems.
In this configuration, we suspend the BioCord media from stainless steel cables that span the width of a process tank. Our process specialists calculate the appropriate amount of BioCord that should be added to the process tank to achieve the target removal rates for ammonia, total nitrogen and BOD.
Once installed, the BioCord media provides a massive surface area on which nutrient-removing bacteria can attach and form a highly efficient and highly concentrated biofilm. The BioCord media is made up of a blend of durable, inert materials, meaning that no replacement of the fibres are required as long as they are not physically damaged. This approach can significantly increase plant performance and capacity within the existing footprint, eliminating the cost of additional process tanks and related equipment.
BioCord curtain systems also require little energy to operate. Unlike similar technologies that use individual carriers to support biofilm growth, BioCord Curtains are fixed in place, and do not require additional energy to keep the media circulating and/or in suspension.
In some cases, the existing aeration system may provide sufficient oxygen to maintain BioCord and the existing activated sludge process. This may If not, the BioCord compressor-powered aeration system can achieve high oxygen transfer to the biofilm for a fraction of the capital and operating cost of typical blower-powered systems.
Learn more about Bishop BioCord Reactors for treatment plant upgrades.
Contact us to discuss your wastewater treatment needs.