NewStream is able to accept non-hazardous wastewater via truck or rail car. We handle treatment and discharge, as well as sludge disposal. The facility's convenient location (off of I-95, less than 25 miles from both Boston, MA and Providence, RI) and accessibility make NewStream an ideal choice.
With highly sophisticated equipment and experienced operators, NewStream is able to treat wastewater in the most efficient, and therefore cost-effective, manner possible. While NewStream configures the system to best treat each individual waste stream that it receives, the following information provides a step-by-step description of a typical treatment process.
Each load received at NewStream is isolated, analyzed and batch treated in one of eight 10,000-gal tanks. Each load is treated according to a unique treatment “recipe”, guaranteeing optimum pretreatment. Treatment that occurs at this stage includes:
After batch treatment, wastewater is transferred to one of two 250,000 gallon equalization (EQ) storage tanks. Contaminants remaining in the water at this point are removed through an additional series of chemical reactions and physical separation.
At this stage, the water is also conditioned for biological treatment. Optimal performance of the biological treatment system can only be achieved when the pH, flow rate, and composition of the wastewater are strictly controlled. Therefore, when the wastewater reaches the EQ tanks, large mixers create a homogeneous composition, and the water re-enters the plant at a constant flow rate, which is adjustable up to 800 gpm to meet throughput demand.
The next step is biological treatment, using a Moving Bed Bioreactor (MBBR), (Hydroxyl Systems). The MBBR enables Newstream to treat waste streams with high biological oxygen demand (BOD) by converting contaminants into organic mass and gases.
Specifically, the ActiveCell™ technology employs thousands of polyethylene biofilm carriers operating in mixed motion within an aerated wastewater treatment process.
Every Biofilm carrier provides an active surface area sustaining heterotrophic and autotrophic bacteria within protected cells. This high-density population of bacteria achieves high-rate biodegradation within the system, which provides higher productivity and greater adaptability to varying influent characteristics than most other biological systems in use today. The system operates 24x7, treating up to 35 GPM of wastewater (50,000 gallons per day).
In order to meet some of today’s water quality criteria-based discharge limits, solids — particularly metals — need to be reduced into the part per billion range. Consequently, effluent from the EQ tanks may be processed through additional unit operations.
Water may be sent to a clarifier, where one or more chemical coagulants and/or polymers can be injected to precipitate metals and other contaminants out of solution and physically separate these solids from the water by gravity settling. The precipitate forms a sludge, which is periodically pumped out of the clarifiers to large thickening tanks. The thickened sludge is dewatered in recessed chamber filter presses, resulting in a dry filter “cake” that is sent off site to an appropriate sludge disposal and/or reclamation facility. Certain waste streams produce sludge with beneficial re-use values, such as valuable metals or organic material. These are segregated and recovered for re-use in other manufacturing processes.
One of these is the Insoluble Sulfide Precipitator (ISP) process, which is very similar to the chemical reaction that forms the precipitates in the inclined plate clarifiers. The critical distinction is that metal sulfides are much less soluble in water than their hydroxide counterparts. Therefore, the treated water emanating from the ISP precipitators contains only trace amounts of metal species (i.e. in the parts per billion range).
Effluent from all clarification processes passes through multi-media filtration units prior to biological treatment. The five media layers prevent the possibility of losing any stray particles that might become entrained at high flow rates.
Before accepting any waste stream, NewStream’s Quality Control Manager performs extensive treatability testing to:
A Receiving Log follows each stream throughout treatment process. There are quality control checks at critical steps in the process for operational control, and no effluent is discharged without the approval of the QC Manager.
Additionally, NewStream uses a 24-hour composite, flow-weighted sampling device to sample the plant's effluent twice per week and analyze for compliance with state and local pretreatment standards. Since commencing advanced wastewater treatment operations, the plant has consistently maintained compliance with all increasingly stringent permit discharge limits.
All of the processes described above are automatically controlled by a centralized programmable logic controller (PLC). Information from each of 1500 data points is updated approximately every 45 milliseconds. Alarm points in tanks notify operators whenever manual intervention is necessary. Similarly, the automatic controller continuously monitors the effluent discharge for pH and turbidity — the two primary indicators that the treatment process is under control. In the event an upset is detected, the controller automatically diverts the flow back to the equalization/holding tanks. The wastewater treatment plant can continue operating in this manner for up to 48 hours without the need to shutdown manufacturing. In the meantime, the upset can usually be corrected. This fail-safe system ensures that NewStream maintains the highest standard of compliance and process reliability.