Centrisys/CNP — a North American manufacturer of decanter centrifuges and advanced biosolids treatment technologies — announced it has been awarded the contract to upgrade the Salem, Ohio Columbiana County Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). This project forms an element of the Phase 3 improvements aimed at enhancing the plant’s operational efficiency and compliance with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit parameters. The upgrade will include a Centrisys/CNP CS18-4 skid-mounted centrifuge system and PONDUS thermal hydrolysis process (THP), designed to improve digestion capacity and reduce disposal costs.
“PONDUS is a simple THP for plants of all sizes, which increases solids loading rates to a digester, improves thermal energy balance, produces renewable energy, and reduces disposal costs — using no polymer for sludge thickening before hydrolysation,” said Gerhard Forstner, CNP president. “The anaerobically digested sludge will achieve a flow rate of 50gpm, and a 95% capture rate with 25% dry solids. Delivery of Salem’s new system will be complete in 2024.”
Additional attributes of PONDUS THP are that no steam and no pressure are required with this digester pre-treatment process. Plant operators can operate, maintain and repair PONDUS without additional training and certifications.
The city of Salem WWTP serves 12,000 residents, with a design capacity of 4 million gallons per day. The planned upgrade will help modernise the aged infrastructure and improve compliance with the plant’s NPDES permit, thus ensuring reliable wastewater treatment services for the Salem area residents.
The scope of upgrades will include a new sludge conditioning building, one sludge thermo-chemical hydrolysis process including sodium hydroxide storage and feed system, reactor tank, heat exchanger, boiler, sludge blend tank, and progressive cavity pumps. A new dewatering building with one new decanter centrifuge skid system is also included.
Forstner added, “Working with our manufacturer representative, Fred Monago of FCM Equipment, we conducted an evaluation to ensure Salem’s WWTP gets the best technologies to meet its goals. We understood the team’s desire to expand digester capacity, increase organic loading rate, and get better cake dewaterability to reduce disposal costs. They needed system simplicity, installation efficiency, low CAPEX and OPEX, and high operational efficiency, which is why our systems stood out for this critical infrastructure upgrade.”
To help wastewater treatment professionals better understand the benefits of PONDUS, Forstner will conduct a discussion on 13 June 2023.
