Wastewater treatment plants

PALMINCO’s high-performance ultrasonic systems can be used in both municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants across a wide range of applications.

These primarily include sludge treatment, but also wastewater treatment in the form of reducing sludge bulking and foaming, as well as improving nitrogen removal by providing internal carbon carriers.

Connection diagram for ultrasound technology at municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants

Applications: Sludge treatment

Conventional digestion of sewage sludge is limited by the hydrolysis stage (technical digestion limit).
Treating the excess sludge with ultrasound enables this limit to be overcome.
The digestion process is intensified, resulting in more extensive degradation.
This reduces the volume of digested residual sludge whilst increasing biogas production.

Applications: Wastewater treatment

In biological nitrogen removal, carbon must be supplied for the denitrification stage.
Normally, methanol or other chemicals have to be purchased for this purpose.
Ultrasound, on the other hand, breaks down excess bacterial biomass (excess sludge),

thereby making cellular contents available as a carbon source and feeding them into the denitrification process.
At the same time, nitrogen degradation increases.

Applications: Bloated sludge & foams

The formation of bloated sludge and foam caused by the mass proliferation of filamentous microorganisms is a widespread problem in sewage treatment plants.
Foam formation often occurs as a separate phenomenon in the digester.
Continuous ultrasonic treatment of a small portion of the return sludge creates constant stress on the active activated sludge biomass.
As a result, the filamentous microorganisms are permanently eliminated.