Thread Content
Shaanxi Chemical BDO Plant Overcomes Challenges in Wastewater Treatment Author/Source: Shaanxi Chemical Date: 2022-02-11 Clicks: 8 In 2021, Shaanxi Chemical’s BDO plant established a task force to address the issues related to the volume of wastewater generated and its source control during the second phase of operations. This team focused on overcoming the bottlenecks in wastewater treatment within its jurisdiction, resolved the problems that arose during technical upgrades, and ultimately managed to improve wastewater treatment capabilities as well as reduce the sludge content in the wastewater system, thereby enabling the system to operate at a more optimized level. After the task force was established, it focused on the actual conditions of the sewage treatment process; for any abnormal issues that arose, it first made predictions, then verified the reliability of those predictions through practical experience, and subsequently formulated appropriate measures to carry out the plan. To improve wastewater treatment capacity, the task force requires that relevant personnel strictly monitor the quality of water entering the wastewater system, as well as parameters such as COD in that water, and assigns dedicated staff to regularly check the dynamic data related to these water quality indicators. Based on the inspection results of the separate stormwater and sewage pipelines, targeted repairs are carried out in terms of quality, direction, and location to ensure that these pipelines function separately as intended. Replace some of the pipelines in the oxygen tank that exhibit uneven aeration, so as to ensure an adequate supply of dissolved oxygen and provide sufficient air reserves for the aerobic tank, enabling it to operate efficiently and stably. During operation, wastewater treatment systems generate large amounts of active sludge and dead sludge. If the sludge content is too low, pollutants in the water are not sufficiently decomposed, resulting in wastewater that does not meet quality standards. However, if the sludge content is too high, part of the active sludge will become inactive and decompose due to a lack of sufficient nutrients. The decomposition of sludge generates large amounts of pollutants, thereby affecting the efficiency of wastewater treatment. To maintain optimal sludge treatment capacity, it is necessary to discharge excess sludge to preserve its activity, thereby achieving ideal wastewater treatment results. The excess sludge discharged still needs to be dewatered using a dewatering machine. The old-style dewatering machines currently in use suffer from high failure rates and high maintenance costs, which results in the liquid level in the sludge tank remaining high for extended periods. Therefore, the task force decided to replace the old type of dewatering machine with a spiral wound dewatering machine in order to improve the efficiency of sludge dewatering and reduce the workload for the staff. Once put into operation, the spiral press dehydrator has become a new star in water treatment systems thanks to its advantages of small space requirement, easy maintenance, low operating costs, and the ability to operate fully automatically 24 hours a day. Its capability to handle low-concentration wastewater also helps to reduce the reliance on thickening tanks to some extent. Following a series of optimizations in parameter control and technical upgrades carried out by the task force, the wastewater treatment unit was able to meet the required discharge standards while increasing the system’s wastewater processing capacity by 17 t/h compared to before – an increase of 0.04% over the planned capacity. This helped to alleviate the wastewater treatment pressures on the branch plant, providing strong support for the entire BDO production system.