Bioreactor design for treatment of wastewater with excess phosphate in a steel pipe coupling manufacturing plant

Abstract

This study presents the design and analysis of a wastewater treatment plant at Tenaris's FACU plant, aimed at improving the quality of the water used in the cupola washing process. It highlights the implementation of an innovative system that merges a membrane bioreactor (MBR) as the main treatment and a gravity settler as pretreatment. The calculations and modeling used to design both the MBR, and the gravity settler are based on extensive analysis. In the case of the MBR, flow calculations, determination of the required membrane area, evaluation of flow rates and consideration of design parameters such as permeate flow/sludge flow ratio and pollutant removal efficiency are performed. On the other hand, in the design of the gravity settler, the sedimentation velocity, hydraulic retention time and suspended solids separation efficiency are considered. These procedures allow optimizing the design of both components of the treatment system, ensuring its optimum efficiency and performance. Values of the physicochemical parameters of the wastewater were obtained within the maximum limit values according to the legal standard for the proper disposal and discharge of wastewater. In addition, the environmental impact matrix based on the modified EPM Arboleda model is used to identify and evaluate the plant's activities, which facilitates a qualitative classification of environmental risk. It is important to highlight that the plant design is aligned with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 6, 14 and 9.