Package Plant Replacements
Gets rid of package plant headaches
Small activated sludge plants are notoriously difficult to operate. Ask any wastewater operator for their best horror stories from running their little activated sludge plants and be prepared to listen for hours. Activated sludge is very efficient for large flows, but struggles to be consistent when running on low and variable flows.
There is a better way to treat small and variable flows than activated sludge package plants. Packed bed media filters have a long proven history of extremely reliable, robust, consistent treatment of small flows.
Sand filter systems laid the ground work and technologies like AdvanTex were created to improve upon and capitalize on the low O&M cost and excellent treatment performance of sand filters on a larger scale.
Frequency of visits vary from 2x/year to weekly depending on the size of the system and permit. Activated sludge plants will require 5 visits per week and oftentimes operators and small utilities visit on Saturday and Sunday as well to ensure there aren't surprises on Monday.
Do you think this low frequency visit means poor and inconsistent sampling results?
WRONG. 96% of AQWA's Advantex system samples over the years have been less than 10mg/l BOD and less than 10mg/l TSS. This is across the board including highly variable single family (12 bedroom) homes getting hammered in the summertime to shopping centers and mixed use treatment systems. This is the average on all of our systems, many of these systems are only required to reach less than 30mg/l BOD.
Check out this case study of a package plant replacement at a mobile home park here in North Carolina.
Fully enclosed, no odors, no safety hazards, insulated against freezing weather, no loud blowers. Surrounded by RVs at the beach, this system has received zero noise or odor complaints. AXMAX units can be installed at grade or partially buried.
The AX-Max is phase-able and AQWA has a great track record of obtaining flow reductions based on historic data which results in lower up front capital cost and easier operations.
Pair all that with low energy use (<2kwh per 1000 gallons treated), low sludge hauling costs, reduced frequency of visits, and a very reliable, easy-to-operate treatment process and AdvanTex based treatment is a no brainer for most small communities and private utilities.
If you have a package plant replacement looming or a small activated sludge plant that is draining your bank account, we'd love to give you a free consultation on what it would look like to replace or expand the existing system with a low headache, low maintenance, highly dependable, long lasting alternative.
Reach out to us at 252-243-7693 or email info@aqwa.net.
65,000 gallon per day AX-Max installation replaced a struggling activated sludge plant. Connection to a live system with a requirement of "not a single drop of treated or untreated effluent to hit the ground." Sounds simple, but I assure you it is not. When you provide the state its electricity, high standards are a good thing!
Children, parents and teachers walk past this 7200 gpd treatment plant every day unaware that it is a wastewater treatment facility. Charter schools have very difficult waste water strengths with very high NH3 levels. There's no way an activated sludge system would be able to reliably meet the nitrogen reduction requirements of this permit.
Easy, quick installation, all fiberglass, no metal to rust out