Water, Sewage & Effluent January February 2019 | Page 31

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Rhodes University (EBRU) at the Belmont
Valley Wastewater Treatment Works
(WWTW) in Makhanda (Grahamstown),
the IAPS is modelled on one of a variety
of advanced integrated wastewater
pond systems (AIWPS) designed and
innovated by the late Professor Bill
Oswald and his co-workers and was
indeed designed by Oswald himself.
The system comprises a primary
facultative pond with submerged
anaerobic digester or fermentation
pit, which together feed paddlewheel-
driven high-rate algal oxidation ponds
linked in series. Suspended biomass
is separated from the treated water
by algal settling ponds prior to tertiary
treatment. The latter typically involves a
Water Sewage & Effluent January/February 2019
31
I
n January 2010 and in March 2013,
Water, Sewage & Effluent published
articles respectively titled, “Golden
Pond” and “Golden Pond? — Yes!”.
These articles provided detail on the
configuration, operation, and water
quality of an integrated algal pond
system (IAPS) that treats domestic
sewage under South African conditions.
Here, Taobat Jimoh, Richard Laubscher,
Keith Cowan, and Derek Askew examine
peroxonation as a means to mitigate
concerns around availability of land and
residual chemical oxygen demand (COD)
and total suspended solids (TSS) in the
final IAPS effluent.
Located on the campus of the Institute
for
Environmental
Biotechnology,
innovations
By Professor A Keith Cowan, Taobat Jimoh,
Richard Laubscher, and Derek Askew
maturation pond series or similar. Kinetic
and operation parameters of each IAPS
component determines quality of the
final effluent and a complete evaluation
of the process has recently been
published (Water Research Commission
TT 649/15). Even so, while IAPS-treated
water appears to comply with the
general standard for either irrigation
or discharge, large gaps in terms of
technology status, design and process
operation, and cost of construction exist
that can only be addressed following
implementation of full-scale commercial
systems.
In the March 2013 Water, Sewage &
Effluent article, Professor Keith Cowan
and co-workers alluded to a strategy
whereby IAPS can be used to valorise
the bulk by-products including water for
recycle/re-use, methane, and biomass.
Quantification of these by-products
from the Belmont Valley IAPS revealed
that this 500PE pilot-scale system
produced ~28ML/y treated water for
recycle/re-use, a methane-rich biogas
Supporting peri-urban agriculture and food production.
Golden Ponds peroxonated —
for water, energy, and food