Siemens will be highlighting answers for nutrient removal at WEFTEC.10. The company will be educating visitors on how they can meet the future regulations. Siemens will be located at booth #2827, Hall F.
Excess nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from farm fertilizers, sewage and industrial pollutants can adversely affect plant and animal growth, as well as human development. Thus, nutrient pollution of major watersheds has become an increasing concern of government agencies, public utilities and private industries. The "dead zone" in the Northern Gulf of Mexico is an example of nutrient-related impairment. Technologies that can cost-effectively remove nutrients from wastewater, while saving energy, are an important part in helping to solve this problem, said Siemens Water Technologies.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has created a national nutrient criteria strategy that will require states to adopt numeric nutrient standards. Thus, many U.S. utilities will need to achieve effluent nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations that challenge their current water treatment capabilities.
In anticipation of possible future regulations for reducing nitrogen and phosphorus at all new municipal wastewater treatment plants whose discharge eventually feeds into the Mississippi River Basin, some plants have begun to design nutrient removal into their new plants or have upgraded existing plants to reduce nutrient levels. The state of Kansas' Nutrient Reduction Plan reported that reducing 30% of the mass of total nitrogen delivered to the Gulf could result in as much as 50% less dissolved oxygen depletion in the Northern Gulf.
While many wastewater treatment plants are capable of biological nutrient removal, quickly changing regulations in some areas are requiring enhanced nutrient removal to meet nitrogen and phosphorus discharge limits (phosphorus levels less than 0.3 mg per liter and total nitrogen of 3.0 mg per liter or less). Siemens Water Technologies said it is continuing to develop and provide innovative technologies.
Source: Siemens
