RESEARCH ARTICLE

All you need is air—­Alternating activated sludge

system BIOCOS without electromechanical equipment

Bernhard Wett ,1,* Annemarie Brückl ,2 Peter Aichinger ,1 Kurt Ingerle 2

1
ARAconsult, Innsbruck, Austria
• Abstract
2 Exclusively air-­driven operation is an essential feature of the cyclic activated sludge
University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
process BIOCOS. Switching the air-­flow between diffusers, agitation, and recycle air-­
Received 24 August 2020; Revised 11 lift keeps operation and maintenance simple and leads to significant energy savings
November 2020; Accepted 24 November used for mechanical devices. The overall energy demand for the whole biological sys-
2020
tem with settling was found to be below 20 kWh/PE.a. This hybrid technology shows
Additional Supporting Information may be a constant water level characteristic for continuous flow systems and time-­based
found in the online version of this article. control. Modular rectangular tank configuration and high solids operation targets a
Correspondence to: Bernhard Wett, compact footprint. Process wise, the settling sludge blanket in the two alternating set-
ARAconsult, Innsbruck, Austria. tling tanks was found to contribute considerably to post-­denitrification and enhances
Email: wett@araconsult.at phosphorus removal. During the last years, approximately 200 BIOCOS plants have
been implemented mainly in Germany, Austria, Spain, and China, some of the opera-
*WEF Member.
tional results are presented in this paper. © 2021 Water Environment Federation
DOI: 10.1002/wer.1516 • Practitioners points
• BIOCOS is a hybrid process with alternating settling tanks at constant water level.
© 2021 Water Environment Federation
• The performance of demonstration plants shows high resilience against hydraulic
and organic peak loads.
• The energy demand for the process was found to be very small.
• The process is driven with no electromechanical equipment but one main blower
station.
• The sludge blanket in the alternating settler significantly contributes to denitrifica-
tion and phosphorus removal.

• Key words
cyclic process; denitrifying PAO; endogenous denitrification; energy efficiency;
wastewater

Introduction
The activated sludge process has experienced numerous developments in terms of
process design and reactor design. Process design modifications have led to several
different sub-­types reaching from high rate activated sludge process (Jimenez et al.,
2015) targeting efficient pretreatment up to extended aeration processes targeting
both water and sludge treatment (Metcalf et al., 1979). However, also the conven-
tional activated sludge process (CAS) can be found in different shapes and sizes, each
addressing different aspects such as volume demand, foot print, operational costs,
sludge production, and maintenance requirements. Mostly, nitrogen removal per-
formance was found to be the critical performance indicator (Orhon, 2015). CAS is
accommodated by different process technology families which are
• continuous activated sludge system with constant water level and separate reactor
compartment and settler (Eckenfelder, 1998);
• single-­tank system operated at variable water level with time control (Silverstein &
Schroeder, 1983); and

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• alternating activated sludge processes with constant water process uses one aeration tank equipped with diffusers and
level and time control: operates two alternating settler compartments with a simple
air-­
driven mixing and recycle-­ equipment installed (Ingerle,
–­ BIODENITRO (Christensen, 1975) with alternating aer- 2006). The novelty of this work is to pinpoint the alternating
ation tanks hybrid process between potentials and limitations of time-­
–­ BIOCOS (Ingerle, 2008, 2018) with alternating settler controlled systems versus continuous flow systems.
compartments. The aim of this paper is to describe and assess the func-
Conventional continuous activated sludge systems are tional features of the BIOCOS configuration. Specifically, the
characterized by sludge recycling (RAS) requiring adequate process contribution of the sludge blanket in the alternating
piping and a RAS pump station. For nitrogen removal, the elec- settlers is investigated. The individual design aspects such as
tron donors and acceptors, that is, carbon and nitrate, typically hydraulic and organic overload and sludge settling properties
get into contact either by an internal recycle flow toward a pre-­ were demonstrated by different full-­ scale implementations.
anoxic zone (MLE process) or by influent distribution toward The description leads to the latest generation of the develop-
a staged configuration (step-­feed approach). Control flexibility ment of the BIOCOS technology which includes an anaerobic
is achieved to a degree that is limited by the range of recycle selector or Bio-­P tank.
rates and the availability of additional aeration volume or swing
zones, respectively. More flexibility can be achieved by time-­
Methods
controlled processes.
In single-­tank systems, all reaction and separation pro- Process description
cesses are handled within one tank targeting higher control The conventional BIOCOS is a cyclic activated sludge system
flexibility and avoiding the need for any recycle flow. The high with an aeration tank (AIR in Figure 1) hydraulically connected
flexibility of such a multi-­task reactor is paid by additional to two alternating sludge recycling and settling tanks (ALT
equipment since the whole volume needs to be enabled for each 1 + 2). The effluent valve of one of the settling compartments
unit-­process operated in individual phases—­meaning the set- is open allowing the feed flow to the aeration tank to push out
tler requires mixing and aeration ability. the supernatant water from the corresponding settler. A RAS
Obviously alternating activated sludge systems aim on pump station or any electromechanical equipment for stirring
the combination of the more established space-­and time-­ or recycling are not required—­all phases of the operation cycle
controlled systems: Matching both features—­constant water are exclusively driven by pressurized air from the same blower-­
level and alternating operation—­can be achieved by switching source (Figure 1) saving a lot of effort and equipment in opera-
the wastewater flow between two or more tanks. The BIOCOS tion and maintenance. One cycle consists of following phases:

Figure 1. BIOCOS flow scheme and process cycle.

2 Wett et al.
 RESEARCH ARTICLE

Figure 2. BIOCOS plant Puertollano (Spain; 175,000 PE) with aeration tank (AIR; left) and alternating settler (ALT; right) showing 2 siphons
connected to sludge drains at the bottom and coarse bubble aeration pipes for mixing.

Figure 3. Operational data of the BIOCOS plant Schierling (Germany; 17,000 PE) showing a comparison of MLSS profiles in the aeration
tank (AIR) and in settling compartments (ALT).

• sludge recycle (RAS) phase: recycling of the thickened bot- AIR tank compared to the (mixed) ALT tanks (Figure 3). This
tom layer of the settled sludge blanket from the ALT to the solids distribution is beneficial on one hand for high biologi-
AIR reactor by means of an air-­lift. cal process rates and on the other hand for a sufficient settling
• Mixing (MIX) phase: mixing of the ALT tank by a roll cur- velocity of the sludge blanket between 1.5 and 2.0 m/h.
rent induced by coarse bubble aeration for a few minutes.
High mixing intensity homogenizes and re-­aerates the an- Demonstration plants
oxic sludge blanket. The BIOCOS-­WWTP Schierling has been designed for an
• Sedimentation (SED) phase: settling sludge blanket—­ organic load of 17,000 PE in terms of 60 g(BOD) per person
formation of a floc filter for fine particle removal and devel- and day and it provides simultaneous aerobic sludge stabi-
opment of a dense bottom sludge layer. lization without upstream primary clarification. More than
• Discharge (DIS) phase: intermittent aeration in the AIR tank 5 years’ worth of operational data confirms the efficiency of the
for nitrogen removal and continuous discharge of superna- air-­driven sludge recycling concept.
tant water from ALT tank (no water level variation). Averaged daily measurements of the mixed liquor solids
concentration (MLSS) in the settling tanks yield a value of
The infrastructure of a BIOCOS configuration for each liq- 3.7 g/L. The MLSS in the aeration tank reaches consistently
uid train consists of an aeration tank equipped with membrane higher values and 5.3 g/L in average means 43% higher MLSS
diffusers providing intermittent aeration (Figure 2, left). More in comparison to the settling tank after mixing (Figure 3).
specialized equipment is installed in the two alternating settling During longer non-­ aerated periods at the BIOCOS
tanks: Drainpipes are mounted directly alongside the bottom of Schierling, significant release of phosphate was observed. To
the tanks connected to vertical siphons at the sidewall toward brighten insights into underlying process mechanisms, 3 mea-
the AIR tank (Figure 2, right). Air-­lift operation almost with- surement campaigns have been initiated (Brückl, 2010) each
out any level head difference produces flow rates up to 1 m3/s with samplings at 3 different levels in the settler during a whole
generating sufficient suction head to transfer the dense bottom process cycle. Nutrient compounds and filtered COD have
sludge layer. Recycling of the thickened sludge layer leads to a been measured to generate profiles and to track temporal and
typically 50% higher mixed liquor solids concentration in the spatial pattern.

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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Figure 4. Operational data of the BIOCOS plant Schierling showing a comparison of SVI profiles with and without the application of a
mechanical RAS pump.

Usually new water resource recovery facilities experience Nutrient removal efficiency
design loads only after several years of operation. The organic There is a major difference between a continuous activated sludge
volumetric loading rate in design is 0.92 kg(COD)/m3. A dif- system with almost no sludge blanket in the settler during dry
ferent situation applies for the new greenfield BIOCOS plant weather conditions and a cyclic process where reactive settling
in Schladming, the venue of the skiing world championship occurs. When the sedimentation phase starts, the homogene-
in 2013. Hosting this large sport event for a period of 2 weeks ous sludge blanket settles and serves as a floc filter taking fine
the design load of 31,000 Person Equivalent (PE, based on and dispersed particles out of the liquid and improves TSS and
120 g(COD)/d per Person) has been exceeded already within COD-­effluent concentration. This principle is caused by differ-
the first half year of operation. The Schladming WWTP pro- ent particle sizes and their differences in settling velocities. These
vides conventional primary clarification, processes solids in velocity gradients promote collisions and aggregation of par-
anaerobic digesters, and utilizes produced methane for the elec- ticles which is also known as macroflocculation (Metcalf et al.,
trical supply of the plant. The designed surface overflow load 1979). This performance is demonstrated by the operational data
for Schladming is 1.21 m/h. Already 1 month before the cham- (shown in Figure S1) with an average COD-­effluent concentra-
pionship took place, a stormwater event caused high hydraulic tion of 15 mg/L representing a COD removal efficiency of 97%.
loads testing the flow and solids separation capacity of the plant. The importance of low particle and COD concentrations needs to
be highlighted especially for scenarios with water reuse options.
Additionally, the sludge blanket, especially in the dense bottom
Results and discussion
layer, promotes endogenous denitrification. The relatively large
SVI in conventional BIOCOS compressed sludge mass in the ALT tanks (compared to conven-
An interesting impact from air-­lift operation for RAS recycling tional settlers) promotes RAS fermentation and release of VFA
was observed when comparing with pump recirculation at paral- and readily degradable COD (Coats et al., 2018). This substrate
lel lanes at the WWTP Schierling. The unique comparative setup availability in combination with high sludge concentrations leads
of pump-­recycling and air-­lift recycling was mainly conducted to to high denitrification rates and a considerable contribution to
investigate solids distribution and energy uptake. Surprisingly, total N removal. After depletion of nitrate, starting Bio-­P activity
the sludge in the BIOCOS lane with air-­driven recycling in the can be observed (see following chapters).
same tank volume and under the same loading conditions devel- The measured average effluent concentration of total
oped significantly better settling properties compared to the nitrogen during the last 5 years was 2.4 mg(N)/L (for details,
mechanical recycle system (Figure 4). Apparently, the more gen- see Figure S1). Considering a total N influent concentration of
tle recycling strategy without mechanical shear force improves 75 mg/L, the removal rate achieves again a value of 97%.
solids aggregation. During an operational period of more than The measured specific energy uptake for the BIOCOS pro-
5 years, the average SVI in the settler with the RAS siphon was at cess in 2011 was at 14.6 kWh/PE/a which is among the low-
67 ml/g(TSS) compared to 88 ml/g(TSS) in the settler with RAS est energy consumption in Austrian WWTPs (Haslinger et al.,
pump, meaning at a 24% lower value. The importance of shear 2016).
force for SVI was also reported by Feng et al. (2016) due to limited
EPS resistance against shear force and their role in flocculation Hydraulic overload
and settling. It is known that low concentrated systems, which The peak flow event in Schladming shows a flow rate of
is the case for systems with few serial continuously stirred tank 10,648 m3/d which represents the hourly design load of
reactor (CSTR) units, tend to produce bulking sludge (Kõrgmaa 432 m3/h as daily average. Although the MLSS concentration
et al., 2019). Therefore, improvement in sludge settleability was in the BIOCOS tanks was high in preparation of the sports
highly appreciated. event, no wash-­out of solids was observed (see Figure S2). This

4 Wett et al.
 RESEARCH ARTICLE

Figure 5. Nutrient profiles along the depth of the settling compartment during one operation cycle indicating release of soluble COD as a
driver for denitrifying Bio-­P (Schierling WWTP).

is most certainly owed to the low SVI that was established in retained in the reactors leading to an MLSS concentration of
the BIOCOS system (see Figure 4). around 6 g/L. The SVI was maintained around 100 ml/g until
the feed load decreased and higher SRT resulted in a 10%
Organic overload increase in SVI (for details, see Figure S3). This resilience
During the skiing world championship, the organic influent against organic overload is probably owed to the sludge blan-
load achieved its maximum of 4359 kg(COD)/d exceeding ket in the ALT tanks serving as a reactive volume addition-
the design load of 3100 kg(COD)/d. Additional biomass was ally to the reactive volume of the AIR tank. Common design

Water Environment Research • 1–7, 2021 5

RESEARCH ARTICLE

guidelines for CAS systems with continuously fed clarifiers do

not consider reactive volumes within the settlers.
The effluent concentrations remained stable during the
whole high-­load period and monthly average removal rates
achieved values of 97% and 73% for COD and for nitrogen,
respectively (for details, see Figure S4).

Energy balance
The BIOCOS plant Schladming is driven by 5 blowers, one for
each train for the baseload, one additional blower each for the
tourist seasons and the 5th blower as standby. These blowers
are the only power consumers for the main biological stage
and the demand can easily be compared to the energy pro-
duction from biogas by the cogeneration system which was
about 90%–­100% after the high-­load season (for details, see
Figure S5).
Due to the relatively small size of the coupled heat power
system, its electrical efficiency is in the range of 33%–­35% while
larger units would be available at 40% efficiency meaning 1/5
more energy production. The generated heat is used to heat the
operator building and the digesters to mesophilic temperature.
Figure 6. New flow scheme of BIOCOS with upstream anaero-
In March, with steady operation of all unit processes, the pro-
bic selector for enhanced biological phosphorus removal (yellow
duced electrical energy amounted to 102% of the energy used arrow: wastewater; brown arrow: RAS; green arrow: effluent).
for the BIOCOS system. This way the BIOCOS Schladming
demonstrated energy positive wastewater treatment. The great
impact of the applied treatment technology is also highlighted dissolved oxygen becomes available again. The contribution of
by Gu et al. (2017). this endogenous denitrification to total denitrification is con-
siderably high which can be seen by the depletion of nitrate in
Investigation of denitrifying Bio-­P activity in the the bottom layer compared to the supernatant.
settling sludge layer Applied design calculations for presented BIOCOS sys-
Usually biological phosphorus uptake is enhanced by expos- tems consider the contribution of endogenous denitrification
ing biomass to anaerobic conditions at high VFA availability—­ in the range of 33%–­50% to total N removal based on nitrate
typically in an upstream non-­aerated tank where RAS and raw depletion in the sludge blanket (Figure 5). Metal savings due
wastewater is introduced. Under these conditions, phosphate to Bio-­P activity led to beta-­values down to 0.7 mol(Fe3+)/
accumulating organisms (PAO) release phosphate for energy mol(PO34 −) depending on temperature.
generation and take up carbon for growth. In case of extended A disadvantage of a CSTR is the risk of poor sludge char-
anoxic phases, specialized organisms can get established which acteristics due to low substrate concentrations promoting the
are able to accumulate phosphate simultaneously during deni- growth of filamentous bacteria (Chiesa & Irvine, 1985). The
trification (Qiuyan & Oleszkiewicz, 2009). These so-­ called new-­ generation BIOCOS system is equipped with a small
denitrifying PAOs do not achieve as high rates in phosphate anaerobic selector to improve sludge settling characteristics
uptake as in aerobic conditions but can take benefit in predom- and promote PAO growth. Compared to the Johannesburg pro-
inantly anoxic systems. After the aerobic mixing phase at the cess (Metcalf et al., 1979), the sludge blanket represents the pre-­
beginning of the sedimentation phase, both soluble COD and anoxic zone for nitrate depletion and the Bio-­P compartment
nutrient concentrations are low (Figure 5). In the course of the represents the anaerobic zone for P release (Ingerle, 2018). The
settling process especially in the denser bottom layer, soluble associated process scheme is shown in Figure 6.
COD increases from ca. 15 mg/L to ca. 60 mg/L and in the same This novel design is currently realized on two full-­scale
time the phosphate concentration increases from ca. 1 mg(P)/L sites (Soyen in Germany and Xiajiahe in China) with promising
up to 6 mg(P)/L. The supernatant water layer from where the results to be published.
effluent is discharged shows hardly any change in COD and
nutrient concentrations since the releasing biomass has settled
Conclusion
toward the bottom of the tank.
Obviously due to denitrification, nitrate gets depleted Investigations could show significant activity of denitrify-
in the thickened sludge layer reaching ca. 1 mg(N)/L in the ing PAO in the settling sludge blanket. Although presented
bulk liquid and probably completes removal inside the flocks. BIOCOS plants have been designed for chemical P precipita-
Under these anaerobic conditions and at increasing availabil- tion, enhanced biological phosphorus removal led to major
ity of soluble COD from endogenous release, the denitrifying metal savings. With depletion of nitrate in the sludge blanket,
PAOs start to release phosphate and pick it up once nitrate or the redox potential is reduced and P release is starting to occur.

6 Wett et al.
 RESEARCH ARTICLE

This implies that the sludge blanket significantly contributes to resources (equal); supervision (equal); validation (equal);
the treatment process and the whole settler tank can be seen as writing-­review & editing (equal).
reactive volume. In order to target complete EBPR (enhanced
biological P removal) performance, an anaerobic selector needs References
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