Southport AWTP: Dissolved Oxygen (DO) Improvements
Citizens Energy Group’s Southport Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant (Southport AWTP) went through a capacity expansion to fulfill treatment capacity as committed in the Long Term Control Plan Consent Decree. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit regulates different wastewater constituent discharge concentration limits and seasonal limits of different parameters have been established for decades.
With intense heat during the summer months, the higher temperature of wastewater leads to a lower DO saturation concentration, presenting a challenge to meet effluent DO concentrations required by the NPDES permit. The senior design team will examine the field DO concentrations at the Southport AWTP; evaluate the hydraulic characteristics that influence DO, investigate measures to increase DO throughout the treatment processes; and identify potential cost effective improvements.
Senior Design Team update:
This EEE senior design team (pictured left), consisting of Jackson Coleman, Natalie Gustafson, Sarah Williams and Jingfei Deng, is working in partnership with Citizens Energy Group at the Southport Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. The goals for the project are to propose three design alternatives that will raise the dissolved oxygen concentration in the effluent and provide a detailed cost analysis of the proposed solutions. The team visited the plant on two separate occasions in the fall semester in an effort to gain knowledge about the specific treatment processes already in place and performed a series of laboratory analyses of water samples throughout the process. With the information obtained thus far, they are developing solutions that will effectively meet the client’s needs in a sustainable manner.