Advanced modelling for improved separation efficacy from Industrial Phycology’s algal wastewater treatment process – Reducing the CAPEX and OPEX of sustainable water treatment process

新的立法强调了减少废水（WW）排放中的磷和铵等营养物质的必要性，以保护我们的环境。水处理工业目前严重依赖于使用化学品来促进磷酸盐沉淀成污泥，然后必须去除和处置。对三价铁（最常用的化学品）的需求大幅增加。目前的预测预计，到2025年，铁的供应将短缺30%。因此，替代的非化学解决方案去除营养物质是在WW sector.Industrial-Phyc（I-Phyc）的显着利益开发了一种基于微藻的工业应用程序的WW的可持续和环境友好的处理。I-Phyc工艺利用藻类细胞作为生物催化剂，确保快速有效地去除磷酸盐、铵和各种新兴污染物。I-Phyc工艺被设计用于小型WW处理厂的改造，去除所需的化学品。藻类生物质的使用和处理后的水的质量对该工艺至关重要，两者都取决于用于从水中分离藻类的技术。然而，已知这是具有挑战性的，因为生物质与液体的比率低，细胞尺寸小，并且比重与培养基非常相似，从而产生稳定的悬浮液。I-Phyc目前采用最知名的技术离心分离藻类材料，但该技术过于昂贵，占整个I-Phyc工艺所需总能量的约30%。它还需要大量和复杂的维护。众所周知，水处理运营商是风险规避者，因此选择的分离技术必须符合I-PHYC的要求，并且在水处理行业中相对知名。I-PHYC已经筛选了几种分离技术，但是每种技术都有多个变量，可以改变这些变量以影响分离效率，使得优化耗时。通过Innovate UK 'A4I'竞赛的支持，I-Phyc将与世界领先的建模机构TÜV SÜD国家工程实验室（NEL）合作。I-Phyc之前曾与NEL合作，了解建模对决策的深度和速度的影响。与领先的专家合作，对分离技术进行建模和优化，将大大降低I-Phyc的资本和运营成本，并增加潜在废水处理场地的数量，这些场地通常电力容量有限

New legislation has highlighted the need for nutrients, such as phosphorous and ammonium in wastewater (WW) discharges to be reduced to protect our environment. The water treatment industry is currently heavily dependent on the use of chemicals to promote phosphate-precipitation into a sludge which must then be removed and disposed of. There has been a massive increase in demand for ferric (the most used common chemical option). Current forecasts predict there will be a 30% shortfall in supply of ferric by 2025\. Therefore, alternative nonchemical solutions for nutrient removal is of significant interest within the WW sector.Industrial-Phycology (I-Phyc) has developed a process based on the industrial application of microalgae for the sustainable and environmentally friendly treatment of WW. The I-Phyc process utilises the algal cell as a biocatalyst, which ensures fast and effect removal of phosphate, ammonium, and a wide range of emerging containments simultaneously. The I-Phyc process has been designed to be retrofitted onto small WW treatment works, removing the need chemicals.The use of the algal biomass and the quality of the treated water are critical to the process and are both dependent on the technology used to separate the algae from the water. However, this is known to be challenging due to the low biomass to liquid ratio, small cell sizes, and specific gravities very similar to that of the medium, creating a stable suspension. I-Phyc currently employs the best-known technology, centrifugation, to separate the algal material, however the technology is prohibitively expensive and represents ~30% of the total energy required for the whole I-Phyc process. It also requires significant and complex maintenance. Water operators are well known to be risk averse, therefore the separation technology selected must meet I-PHYC's requirements and be relatively well known in the water industry.I-Phyc has been screening several separation technologies, however each of technology has multiple variables that can be altered to affect the efficiency of separation making optimisation time consuming. Through the support of Innovate UK's 'A4I' competition I-Phyc will collaborate with TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory (NEL) a world leading modelling facility. I-Phyc has previously worked with NEL and understands the impact modelling can have on the depth and speed of decision making. Working with leading experts to model and optimise the separation technologies would significantly reduce I-Phyc's capital and operational costs and increase the number of potential wastewater sites, which often have limited electrical capacity