Technological progress does not pass small wastewater treatment plants by without leaving a trace. The Municipal Works Hartberg together with the institute Joanneum Research are to stay abreast of these changes with the construction of an area for the testing and optimisation of small wastewater treatment plants. At the same time the new plant shall allow the broad public to "experience" already available technologies. With this project the "Regionale Innovations- und Forschungsstelle Hartberg" – a competent partner for applied research and development for companies of the entire region and department of Joanneum Research – is adding an additional scientific dimension of to the environmental industry park.
Research on the object
The planned testing area will show various methods of wastewater treatment (e.g. activated sludge process, percolating and soil filter systems) by means of functioning small treatment plants.
The major aim is the scientific search for improvements concerning the decomposition capacity, or rather the industrial safety in connection with special substances, such as wastewaters difficult to be decomposed or sewage waters with an unfavourable BOD5 – COD ratio.
Wastewaters belonging to this group are, for example, leachate from composting plants, but also presswater expected to be generated in the digester gas plant planned at the Ökopark.
On the one hand these efforts aim to test and optimise the applicability of small treatment plants also for this particular starting situation.
On the other hand these research results shall be also used to investigate in the application potential of small treatment plants for heavily polluted industrial wastewater in closed circle systems.
The most important facility in connection with the applied research and development plan is going to be a test plant on halftechnical scale. The wastewater technology centre shall be adapted in such a way that already existing small wastewater treatment plants can be tested, too. In addition, an appropriate infrastructure for companies producing and selling small treatment plants shall be set up at the Ökopark. They will soon be able to have their products tested and optimised as to treatment capacity, or rather industrial safety. The companies will thus be able to choose among a broad range of tests for different pollution levels up to worst case scenarios, i.e. the total collapse of treatment.
This will be possible by means of a planned bypass mains (to remove the probational wastewater in an orderly way) to the local sewer system. Selectively simulated breakdowns allow to reliably assess the industrial safety of a plant. The technical wastewater infrastructure will possibly be suited for the type testing of small wastewater treatment plants. The 1999 Water Law Amendment §12c explicitly mentions the possibility of a technical approval in the course of a type testing procedure on the basis of a pertinent framework legislation. Details are not available yet, but they shall soon be regulated in a pertinent ordinance.
Another focus of the testing area at the Ökopark is the development of combined process technologies. For this purpose a basic module with downstream purification steps – as, for example, various types of soil filter bodies or an irrigation system near the surface – shall be operated. Particularly in rural scattered dwellings, small wastewater treatment plants fail to be realised because there is no capacious receiving water available in the near surroundings. Departing from this situation, the planned investigation shall systematically survey and document important fundamentals on the operation of process combinations. The findings will undoubtedly not only help to gather more information on the purification efficiency and the industrial safety of combined processes, but also on the hazardous potential of orderly irrigation of treated wastewater.
"Experience" wastewater treatment plant
Last but not least the new testing area will both be interesting for "normal people" and potential customers. Thus, particularly sophisticated presentation didactics shall lure as much Ökopark visitors as possible to have a look inside a purification plant.
The aim is to offer an "experience" by presenting the individual treatment processes in an exciting way so that they can be understood as a whole. The testing area planned is thus an important part of the projected theme exhibition at the Ökopark. (Source: aqua press Int. 2/2001)
Arnold Stuhlbacher
Information & Contact:
Joanneum Research
Regionale Innovations- und
Forschungsstelle Hartberg
Dr. Arnold Stuhlbacher
Am Ökopark 7, A–8230 Hartberg
Phone +43 33 32 65 085
