OKLAHOMA CITY (Aug. 21, 2014) – World Water Works, Inc. announces that it supplied an IDEAL MBBR Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor wastewater treatment system for the Midwest City Pollution Control Facility (PCF), in Midwest City, Oklahoma. The advanced treatment system is the first MBBR to be developed in Oklahoma, part of more than $50 million in major upgrades that will improve treatment and modernize the 1960s-era, 10 million gallons per day (mgd) facility. For this project, Midwest City engaged Black & Veatch for engineering, design, construction support and commissioning services. The MBBR system has met design parameters for ammonia and carbonaceous biochemical oxygen demand (cBOD) removal and passed its final performance testing.
After experiencing performance issues with the facility’s 1980s rotating biological contactors, Midwest City decided it needed a new biological process and selected World Water Works to provide the multi-stage MBBR, a state-of-the-art fixed-film biological process used for both municipal and industrial wastewater treatment for biological oxygen demand (BOD) removal, nitrification and denitrification.
The proprietary IDEAL MBBR media integrates fixed film and suspended growth technologies. Combining a unique fully open and fully protected biomass carrier with a highly efficient aeration and mixing design, IDEAL MBBR is truly the next generation in biological wastewater treatment methods. The system offers superior effective surface area for biomass growth, optimal oxygen transfer efficiency, and it also minimizes mass transfer boundary.
Wastewater flows into the Midwest City IDEAL MBBR system, which occurs in concrete tanks filled with millions of submerged but buoyant and free-moving plastic media carriers with a large surface area that provides abundant room for bacterial growth. The bacteria digest the soluble organics, degrading the dissolved organic constituents, ammonia-nitrogen and nitrate-nitrogen in the wastewater.
From the MBBR, the wastewater flows by gravity through clarifiers that remove total suspended solids (TSS) as well as bacteria sloughed off from the MBBR. Midwest City has two parallel process trains, with two anoxic reactors and four aerobic reactors for each train. The system capacity can be expanded in the future to handle higher loads or lower effluent limits at a relatively low cost by simply adding more media to the MBBR reactors.
“The World Water Works MBBR system quickly launched into treatment upon commissioning and has proven to be robust and resilient, particularly during difficult operating conditions,” said Arlene Over, P.E., project engineering manager, Black & Veatch. “Along with World Water Works and experienced staff from Midwest City, we’ve been able to optimize the efficiency and effectiveness of the facility, resulting in a smooth operation.”
World Water Works manufactures specialized process and wastewater treatment technologies designed to yield clean water and achieve energy and other resource recovery.
Black & Veatch is a global engineering, consulting and construction company specializing in energy, water, telecommunications, federal and management consulting.