Wastewater lagoons
Accumulated solids had cut hydraulic retention time to 13 days, capping what the facility could put through the plant and putting effluent quality within sight of a limit.
reduction in accumulated solids
01The plant
A 14 million gallon lagoon system at a large meat processing works, taking about 600,000 gallons a day.
02Before
Accumulation had cut hydraulic retention time to 13 days, which capped what the facility could put through the plant. Dredging and disposal were expensive, and a further fall in treatment quality risked a shutdown.
03Treatment
An opening dose to each lagoon, then weekly dosing for a year.
Every result in this library was measured at an operating plant treating with one of the formulations SediLogic supplies, over the window stated above. It is a field result published as reported, not a controlled trial we ran.
04Sizing
Opening quantity against each lagoon's volume, weekly quantities against daily flow. Volume for what had settled, flow for what kept arriving.
05Method
A sludge judge worked from a boat on a grid pattern to set the baseline, and the same grid re-surveyed a year later. Repeating the grid is what makes the two numbers comparable.
06Outcome
The works reported doubling production on the same treatment plant without building more of it — which is the form the benefit usually takes here: recovered capacity rather than a cleaner-looking lagoon.
At the start
22 inches average accumulation across the lagoons, retention time 13 days, production limited by it.
At the close
11 inches average, retention time 25 days, and 486 dry tons digested.
07Limits
Nothing was left untreated. The volatile fraction of the 22 inches is not recorded, so how much of the accumulation could ever have responded is unknown. Grid survey results are averages over a lagoon whose depth varies, and the spread across the grid is not published — only the mean.
Only the volatile organic fraction of a sludge responds to any of this. Grit, sand, silt, mineral precipitates and plastics remain at any dose, here and everywhere else.
—What we would supply
This is the duty SediLogic supplies and sizes. Which article depends on where the material sits: Sedivore Spike is the denser solid and carries down through depth to an established blanket, Sedivore Puck is a smaller unit that spreads a calculated dose across the bed, and SediLogic Maintain is a soluble pouch for load carried in the water column — with Sedivore Polar for that same duty where the water runs cold enough to stall a standard blend.
A quantity for your own lagoon comes from the dosing planner, sized against your dimensions and loading from the manufacturer's written dose method. It does not come from the figure on this page, which was set for a lagoon that is not yours.
—Read next
Wastewater lagoons
Municipal24 weeks
of accumulated solids digested
Just over five feet of accumulated solids in the primary aerated lagoon, assessed at 2,365 dry tons. The plant wanted a route that did not involve dredging.
Wastewater lagoons
MunicipalFive months, May to October
reduction in solids volume overall
Accumulated solids across two lagoon cells, against a specification calling for a 50 per cent reduction. The treatment window was bounded by water temperature, which has to stay above roughly 55°F for the organisms to work at all.
Wastewater lagoons
Municipal3 months
of organic solids digested
Decades of loading had taken the lagoon to a measured 20.5 per cent solids, with a dredging quotation in hand and no budget line to meet it.
Your lagoon next
A different plant, a different loading and a different sludge. What decides your result is how much of your own accumulation is organic and treatable, and whether the dose is sized against the lagoon in front of us rather than read off this page. Tell us the dimensions and we will size it.
