Early warning signs of bulking in an activated sludge system through interpretation of ATP data in a systems analysis context

Abstract

A research project was undertaken at an integrated thermomechanical pulp and paper mill in Canada to evaluate the use of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) monitoring methods in order to identify the potential for operational problems related to microbiological aspects of activated sludge. The specific filamentous bulking ATP (fbATP) ratio is an emerging measurement technique that measures the proportion of flocs that have bulking potential by filtering a sample through a 250 microm mesh and measuring the ATP in the retentate. For the host mill in this study, the specific fbATP measurement provides early warning signs of bulking, at 1.0 to 1.5 times the sludge age, before poor settling occurs. A possible bulking scenario was identified in which the initiator was the overflow of an upstream tank containing high BOD whitewater, resulting in spikes of organic acids to the treatment and promoting the proliferation of certain types of filamentous bacteria. A storage response by filamentous bacteria to these high readily biodegradable substrate conditions was monitored with fbATP. By predicting the onset of bulking conditions, this technique can potentially assist operators to make corrective actions proactively.