BIOCONSULTING and Engineering Service, S.L. (BIOCONS)
We are your specialists for the treatment of effluent, exhaust gases and sludge. Commanding over 25 years of experience in the research, development and plant-scale application of solutions for local authorities, industry. LEVAPOR carrier for biologic treatment. Unique biofilm technology.
Company details
Find locations served, office locations
- Business Type:
- Engineering service provider
- Industry Type:
- Water Consulting and Engineering
- Market Focus:
- Internationally (various countries)
- Year Founded:
- 2006
- Turnover:
- less than 1,000,000 €
About Us
In contrast to industry and commerce, local authorities municipalities generally have to deal with comparatively readily degradable, albeit fluctuating quantities of waste-water sewage. We offer municipal treatment plants the following innovative, tried and tested proven processes:
High performance nitrification
- with suspended and robust carrier-bound immobilised organisms,
- for the main stream, the sludge process water or landfill leachate.
Anaerobic pre -/ partial treatment pretreatment of effluent sewage in plants with minimised sludge generation.
Biofiltration of the effluent as after-treatment, using adsorbing, porous carrier surfaces to achieve more stable nitrification, remove residual COD, and toxic and suspended substances.
Enzyme-supported sludge digestion, improved exgestion resulting in, less residual sludge and enhanced sewage gas production,
Biological waste-gas treatment – for 'lightening speed” treatment desodorating within seconds polluted waste-gas emissions from treatment plants, composting plants and waste warehouses compact trickle-bed reactors with LEVAPOR for the protection of staff and local residents.
Among our successful, tried and tested “special tools' are
- Highly active special organisms (biocatalysts - patented), adapted to tackle the specific problem which operate far more efficiently and quickly than conventional biosludges.
- Porous, absorbing LEVAPOR carriers for the IMMOBILISATION of special organisms.
Our innovative, compact and cost-effective solutions can be configured for the
- Improvement and expansion upgrading and extension of existing plants and
- Construction of new plants.
Compact Anaerobic-Aerobic Municipal Treatment Plants With Minimised Sludge Production
As a by-product, municipal waste-treatment plants generate high quantities of sewage sludge whose disposal is highly cost intensive. However, only around one third is eliminated in today‘s standard sludge-digestion processes.
Our Idea and Solution
To avoid high quantities of sludge, the effluent sewage is fermented by methanising the organic contaminants anaerobically initially through immobilised microorganisms and subsequently aerobically aftertreated. In the process, the contents of effluent are largely eliminated with much lower sludge production.
Description of Process
In the first anoxic downstream chamber, the organic content of the effluent is subject to hydrolysis and acidification. From here, the effluent flows into the plant’s anaerobic reactor and then upstream through a layer of immobilised anaerobic microorganisms equipped with biomass attached on absorbing, porous LEVAPOR carriers which degrade the 'broken down' organic substances by methanisation. The generated biogas is collected in the upper section of the reactor and utilised released into the environment. The anaerobically pre-treated effluent, 65 to 80 percent of whose organic load has already been eliminated, flows through an overflow into the aerobic reactor, which is aerated by means of a special ventilation aeration system installed on the bottom ground. The residual organic contaminants are then oxidised to form carbon dioxide and the ammonium nitrate is nitrified to form nitrate. The denitrification to molecular nitrogen is effected in non-aerated, oxygen-poor anoxic segments of the activated reactor.
The excess sludge produced there, comprising generally only 1/5 to 1/4 of the normal amount, is then separated off into a secondary tank and removed from the plant at regular intervals.
The advantages of the anaerobic-aerobic process compared with the aerobic variant:
- Maximum possible elimination performance, with
- Higher process stability (through immobilisation)
- Higher space-time-yield
- Higher elimination performance due to the anaerobic preliminary stage, (AOX, endocrine substances),
- approx. 80% less, and better settleable excess sludge, as well as
- Lower energy consumption (for aeration and sludge treatment).
In addition, by virtue of the microorganisms immobilised on LEVAPOR considerably more hazardous, endocrine disrupters could be eliminated than in the parallel plant operating with suspended organisms.
Construction Of New Plants For Local Authorities
- The determination of water quantities and their pollution load
- The bio-degradability of the individual strains single streams, or the entire effluent and their
- Seasonal fluctuations, or
- Future trends
must be considered.
Our objective is the design of
- Customised
- High performance
- Cost-efficient
- Environmentally and user-friendly plants,
which can be flexibly adapted to the production requirements or to the expansion of the production plants.
The crucial difference compared to the operation of conventional plants can be achieved through the application of LEVAPOR carriers.
LEVAPOR-carrier / Biological Processes
- Anaerobic preand after-treatment of effluent with minimal generation of sludge.
- High-performance nitrification and denitrification with suspended and robust carrier-bound immobilised organisms, for the main stream or partial streams.
- Biofiltration of effluent as after treatment, via adsorbing, porous carrier surfaces to achieve higher stability of nitrification, removal of residual COD, hazardous and suspended substances.
- Biological waste-gas treatment – for 'lightening speed” treatment of contaminated gas emissions from treatment plants, composting plants and warehouses for waste in compact trickle bed reactors with LEVAPOR for the protection of staff and local residents.
Biological waste-gas treatment – for 'lightening speed” treatment of polluted waste-gas emissions from treatment plants, composting plants and waste warehouses compact trickle-bed reactors with LEVAPOR for the protection of staff and local residents.
Among our successful, tried and tested “special tools' are
- Highly active special organisms (biocatalysts patented), adapted to tackle the specificproblem which operate far more efficiently and quickly than conventional biosludges.
- Porous, absorbing LEVAPOR carriers for the IMMOBILISATION of special organisms.
- Many years’ experience in the development and optimisation of bioprocesses
Our innovative, compact and cost-effective solutions can be configured for the
- Improvement and expansion of existing plants and
- Construction of new plants.
Levapor - Carriers
LEVAPOR: adsorbing, porous carriers for the immobilisation of biomass
The biodegradation of contaminants is the result of ”microbial team work“ by special organisms, whereby
- Such “specialists” tend not to form fast settling flakes, which
- Often leads to their being washed out of the reactor, which
- Substantially diminishes the degradation performance and stability of the bioprocess
An efficient retention of organisms in the bioreactor avoids such undesirable effects. Among the most efficient methods for the maintenance and improvement of the reactor performance is e.g. the IMMOBILISATION of the BIOMASS.
- This involves the “retention” of microbial cells on firm surfaces, together with the formation of biofilms.
- This leads to an increase in
- the degradation performance and process stability, through
- enhanced stability of the organisms despite the impact of fluctuating temperatures, pH-values and inhibitors, as well as
- Lower sludge production. The success of the IMMOBILISATION of microorganisms essentially depends upon the characteristics of the so-called carrier material.
All these requirements are met by LEVAPOR, - An ad...
The advantage of deploying LEVAPOR lies in its ide...
- The surfaces of the carrier material are colonised by the key microorganisms within one of two hours,
- Enabling them to better resist adverse external influences,
- The degradation-inhibiting substances are bound and rendered harmless,
- ioprocesses attain their maximum efficiency more rapidly and can remain stable.
Areas Of Application
The biological treatment of
- Municipal effluent,
- Industrial effluent and
- Contaminated groundwater (in fluidised bed reactors, Fig. 2),as well as contaminated soils and
- Waste gases with carrier-bound microorganisms.
The carrier is also deployed – among other applications – in the following biological degradation processes: for example, in the case of:
- Nitrification
- Poorly degradable substances
- Inhibitory pollutants • Unfavourable sludge properties
LEVAPOR can be applied in
- Fluidised bed reactors, with 10 to 15 vol.% loading
- Fixed bed, as well as “expanded bed“ - reactors with 20 to 70 vol.% loading
Technical Data of LEVAPOR
Cultivated Special Cultures For Biodegradation
The biodegradation of pollutants, which among other things, also contains substituted organic compounds, takes place - analogously with chemical synthesis - in several stages and involves the “cooperation” of several different types of microorganisms (mixed culture). At the same time, each strain is responsible for the conversion of specific molecules and substitutes. The absence of key strains can leads to only partial degradation or even to an interruption in the degradation process, particularly when degradation products are created during such a multistage reaction, which can inhibit the other strains. If the strains responsible for the individual degradation stages and their properties are known, it is possible to deliberately create, cultivate and to feed either continually or in batches, into the bioreactor a defined mixed culture for the biodegradation of a specific compound and its derivatives.
This method is based on the
- Cultivation and permanent availability of
- Mixed cultures, containing important, and
- known organisms in the microbial, flocculent sludge or bioreactor.
Using this process, “problematic” chemicals and by us.
Treatment Of Complex, Poorly-Degradable Industrial And/Or Commercial Effulent With Immobilised
Where as the continual production of paper, paints, food stuffs and mass chemicals (alcohols, carbonic acids, sugar, proteins, etc....) usually generates effluent with readily degradable contaminants, multistage manufacturing plants operating intermittently produce complex effluents, particularly if their products must be
- durable, i.e. light and washproof (dyes, optical brighteners, etc..) or biologically active (herbicides, pharmaceuticals etc..
which usually contain
- Several classes of substances of varying chemical structure, properties and degradability (usually poorly degradable), and
- high salinity, whereby their
- composition and concentration is subject to substantial fluctuations
Apart from the chemicals industry, such complex effluent is also produced in other industrial sectors, for example in the:
- Manufacture of chemicals, pulp and paper
- Textile finishing and tanneries
- Coal refining (coking plants),
- Disposal plants (landfills, fermentation and composting plants,
the concentrate from emulsion separation plants, sludge treatment, etc.) - Manufacture of petrochemical products
Optimisation, Expansion and Improvement
Biological treatment plants are designed and constructed on the assumption of fixed in-flows in terms of quantities and contaminants. Changes in production capacities, product ranges and regulatory stipulations can usually prompt changes in the quantity of effluent and its composition, in which the original process parameters no longer match optimal efficiency, leading to an overload of the plant’s capacity and a deterioration of the degradation performance.
In such cases, the plant need not immediately be expanded, but rather its performance
canbe modified to suit the new requirements
- after careful analysis of the situation, by implementing the
- optimal combination of suitable measures,
which facilitate
- improvements without large-scale investment, or by implementing
- minor expansion measures.
The “tools“ we deploy for this are:
- Experimental determination of process parameters
- Application of optimised, cultivated microorganisms, whose performance can be considerably enhanced by
- Immobilisation on LEVAPOR carriers.
Optimisation And Improvement Of Biological Waste-M...
Through the analysis, examination and optimisation of the critical process parameters, such as
- Process stages
- Technology and
- Process management
biological waste-management plants can be
- Put into operation more quickly and more efficiently, or
- Enhanced to achieve a new, higher and stable elimination performance, and can thus be
- Operated with greater cost efficiency.
Construction Of New Plants For Industry And Commer...
We provide you with technological support in the design of new plants. At the same time, in addition to
- The determination of water quantitiesand their pollution load
- The bio-degradability of the individualstrains, or the entire effluentand their
- Seasonal fluctuations, or
- Future trends
must be considered.
Our objective is the design of
- Customised
- High performance
- Cost-efficient
- Environmentally and user-friendly plants,
which can be flexibly adapted to the production requirements or to the expansion of the production plants.
The crucial difference compared to the operation of conventional plants can be achieved through the application of LEVAPOR carriers.