STP at Fire Station

Believe it or not, this pretty looking ‘garden’ is actually a sewage treatment plant.

ELCITA has installed a wastewater treatment plant at the Fire Station at Electronic City . Its can process 8 Kilolitre a day (KLD) of sewage and is based on CAMUS Soil BioTechnology (CSBT).

CSBT is a bioconversion process where fundamental reactions of nature namely respiration, photosynthesis, mineral weathering take place in a media housing micro and macro organisms which bring about the desired purification. CSBT uses only local materials and is an oxygen supplying biological engine. So the process can treat all types of water – domestic, municipal and industrial. CSBT uses the ecology of soil type media and biological reactions within a constructed bioreactor to treat waste water. This is a giant technological leap forward from current technologies which rely on aquatic ecology for treatment. This technological advance allows us to offer energy efficient treatment solutions and deliver superior water quality. The technology is covered by two US patents (patent no 6890438 B2 dated 5 May 2005 and 7604742 B2 dated 20 October 2009) and 2 Indian patents (patent no – 203744 and 203425) all assigned to IIT Bombay.

Process Flow for 8KLD CAMUS-SBT type STP:. The sewage to water recycling system is single stage

1. Raw sewage is collected in Raw Water Tank (RST) after initial screening and settling.

2. The raw sewage is pumped on top of a CAMUS-SBT Bio Reactor where it percolates through a patented media.

3. The treated water is collected at the bottom of the Bio Reactor and stored in a Treated Water Tank (TWT). Any further purification if required is achieved by recycling the treated water through the Bio Reactor as shown. For larger capacities a two stage design is required then an intermediate sump is required.

Some unique features of the solution:

• SBT/CAMUS-SBT uses only natural materials and it is 100% ecological.

• SBT/CAMUS-SBT allows user start-stop mode of operation and the plant can be run in intermittent mode, batch mode and continuous mode as per site conditions allowing 100% mission availability under varying conditions.

• SBT/CAMUS-SBT can easily handle 150% peak loads for a few days by increasing running times as the situation demands.

• SBT/CAMUS-SBT is capable of tertiary treatment (removal of Nitrogen, Phosphorous and heavy metals). Treated water is antiseptic due to high Dissolved Oxygen levels unlike other treatment technologies.

• Most other technologies require users to ship the sludge generated to a disposal station such as a land fill at significant cost not to mention much hassle. SBT/CAMUS-SBT avoids sludge generation and treats all of it within the process itself. However a provision for a bio-fertilizer from the process can be arranged should the customer need such a facility for other landscaping use.

• One unique aspect of SBT/CAMUS-SBT is the incremental improvement in output water quality as the bioreactor beds adjust to the specific influent composition from process. A 10 year old SBT/CAMUS-SBT plant will routinely deliver superior performance than a new plant. All this with little external input.

• No moving parts unlike MBBR, MBR, and Activated sludge process based STP’s numerous motors, stirrers, blowers, clarifier’s pumps etc.

• Easy to operate, it can be operated by gardener rather than engineer. The plant displays of high aesthetics and appears like garden.

• Low depreciation because of less mechanical equipment.

• Conventional treatment plants create a very bad working environment with many noxious fumes. They therefore have to be sited far away from living and working spaces. SBT/CAMUS-SBT is completely odorless and the output water is reusable.

• In SBT/CAMUS-SBT plants treating normal sewage, the output water is exceptionally good quality.

• CSBTs can be operated well even if power is available intermittently.This feature enables plant to be operated in situations wherein due to variable load plant is operated as and when required.This feature is unique to CSBTs.