From prolonged treatment failure to biological recovery
At the Belgian meat processing facility, nitrification had been reduced for more than six months. The usual natural recovery did not occur, and effluent parameters increasingly exceeded the limits of the environmental permit.
Rather than focusing solely on the biological treatment stage, OQEMA reviewed the complete treatment process. The analysis showed that improving pretreatment was essential to create better conditions for rebuilding the biological system.
The existing primary treatment was therefore optimised by changing from an amphoteric to a cationic flocculant. This significantly improved turbidity reduction and stabilised the water quality entering the bioreactor.
Rebuilding a robust biomass
Once the pretreatment had been stabilised, dosing of Bioremove™ AM began. The selected microorganisms helped establish a stronger culture capable of coping with changing operating conditions and toxic shocks, including exposure to biocidal cationic surfactants used during mandatory disinfection.
Nitrification activity returned immediately under difficult conditions. Over the following weeks, the biomass continued to strengthen until the microorganisms reached critical mass in the sludge.
By week 7, ammonia levels were below the environmental permit limits, and by week 9 they had reached 0 ppm. According to the case data, no comparable failure has occurred since.
The result demonstrates the importance of looking beyond a single treatment stage: optimising the pretreatment first created the conditions needed to rebuild a resilient nitrifying biomass and restore stable nitrification.
