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BHT Environ's BioComb Technology for Rural Wastewater Treatment

China has vast rural area and a large rural population. Comprehensive wastewater treatment is compelling in rural areas. Domestic wastewater is subject to different degrees of pollution in rural areas, due to dispersion of pollution sources, local environment, living habits and other factors. Therefore, rural wastewater has to be treated by taking into account the local rural economic development level, characteristics of pollutant discharge, environmental impact assessment, environmental capacity and other factors, with scientifically determined indicators of pollution control and discharge limits.

Imbalance in Development of Rural Wastewater Treatment, Faced by Difficulties in Investment and Operation

In cities nearly all wastewater is treated; in county seats, the percentage of wastewater being treated is increasing significantly; in rural areas, the percentage of wastewater being treated is only 7% in general, and 10% in a few developed regions, far falling behind cities and county seats.  Construction of rural wastewater treatment facilities is still in its infancy in most provinces, and only a few projects have been built as pilots under national policies.

As we all know, the bodies for development and management of rural wastewater treatment facilities are vague in China, and have to coordinate the relationship with various stakeholders. Development and management of rural wastewater treatment facilities involves national policies, local government reserves and villagers’ attitude. The biggest problems are investment and operation.

The central government has allocated dedicated funds for construction of rural wastewater facilities, for which local governments have different financial strengths in providing supporting funds. Construction of necessary pipelines in rural areas involves a lot of work for coordination and huge investment. As a result, development of rural wastewater treatment is still facing numerous difficulties. Besides shortage of funds, it is difficult to secure necessary professionals for operation and maintenance of the facilities after construction with MBR and other technologies which require highest investment, high operational costs and high standard effluent. It is difficult to ensure the normal operation of facilities.

Operation of rural wastewater treatment facilities mainly relies on the local sources of funds, posing strong financial pressures to local governments. As estimated with the lowest standard, the yearly cost for operation and maintenance of rural wastewater treatment facilities would reach RMB 15.8 million bases on the assumption that 70L wastewater is produced per person day in rural areas, and the rural population is 650 million (figure in 2015). Therefore, the operation of wastewater treatment facilities is relatively easy in rural areas where the local governments can provide sufficient funds; while the development of wastewater treatment facilities has been slow in rural areas less developed where local governments lack funds and no regulation is in place.

Technology as Driving Force in Markets Pending Maturity

In development rural domestic wastewater treatment, government investment is seriously insufficient, and management and maintenance have been short of funds for a long time. In an area in Jiangsu where rural wastewater treatment started early, for example, the villager committees are unable to bear the costs of projects after completion and handover. They also lack necessary professional skills for running the projects. As a result, many projects are held and fail to function effectively. Even professional service providers are engaged, many problems still arise, such as deficiencies in management, failures, non-compliance in effluent, etc. due to various reasons.

To increase investment in rural water treatment, it would take more than 10 days to establish mechanisms for introducing funds other than those from the central government. Instead, it is advisable that the market should be guide and then driven by technology and practices in a coordinated manner. When the market is imperfect, adoption of advanced and appropriate technology and treatment practices are inevitable choices for improving the performance of rural wastewater treatment.

At present, leading companies in rural wastewater treatment include InterChina, Tus-Sound, Sander, OriginWater, JDL and BHT Environ. Tus-Sound and other platform-based companies have made a lot of investment by building wastewater treatment plants with governments under the PPP model. This method can help developed areas establish rural wastewater treatment systems quickly, but it is hindered by the underdeveloped market and lack of policies. Some other companies represented by BHT Environ are knocking open the door of rural wastewater treatment market with advanced technology and practices, which have given them the hold of local markets and possibly the entire market in the future.

Diverse Technical Options for Rural Wastewater Treatment

Problems faced by rural wastewater treatment include scattered rural households, low water amounts, high costs of operation, and difficulties in management and maintenance. As a result, the primary requirement for a technology is that it should provide for reasonable operational costs. As noted by Xia Qing, former Vice President of the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, the operational costs of rural wastewater treatment have to be reduced to less than RMB 0.3 / tonne to facilitate its promotion. The second requirement is easy operation and maintenance, with reduced demand for technical personnel. The third is strong adaptability of the technology, which can be change flexibly adjusted according to conditions of rural wastewater.

Representative technologies for current rural wastewater treatment include: biological treatment technology based on anaerobic fermentation; land treatment technology leveraging soil filtration, plant absorption and microbial decomposition; pollutant stabilization ponds through interaction of bacteria and algae; and traditional technologies represented by A/O. The anaerobic fermentation technology is easy to use with costs under control, but its stability is poor; the land / wetland technology features low operation costs, but it takes up large areas of land, subject to geographical location; the traditional A/O technology is a mature technology, but it cannot be easily integrated and its management is complex. BHT Environ offers the BioComb wastewater treatment plants, which keep low operational costs and highly integrated operation, with dummy-proof management, and ultra-low sludge production.

Designed for Rural Wastewater, BioComb Technology Wins Big

BHT Environ is a professional provider of processes and TIO for wastewater treatment and sludge disposal. Its BioDopp technology, developed by Chinese and German researchers, has been commercialized and highly recognized in the sector of industrial and municipal wastewater treatment, representing the direction biological technologies for wastewater treatment.

The BioComb solutions are designed based on the BioDopp technology for wastewater with specific conditions, and ideal for small wastewater treatment systems, especially suitable for treatment of domestic wastewater of communities with a population less than 4,000. The capacity of the systems ranges from 1 - 15ms/h, available in containers of 4 sizes from 10 to 40 feet. Each series is further divided into high, medium and low specifications. The systems have incorporated the advantages of the BioDopp technology, using air lifting backflow, integrating functions or carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus removal in a minimal volume. The most significant advantage of BioComb lies in that it uses standard containers as the basic unit. The functional component and the control component is combined together to facilitate transfer as movable skid-mounted equipment, widely applied in rural areas, rivers, communities, oil wells and large-scale infrastructure projects.

Rural wastewater treatment follows ideas quite different from those applicable to municipal wastewater treatment. It is not necessarily remove all nitrogen and phosphorus completely. In certain areas, if possible, efforts should be focused on carbon removal, while partial nitrogen and phosphorus is kept for reuse in irrigation, returning the resources to the farmland. As a result, compared with the original BioDopp technology, BioComb has simpler internal flows with completely modular design. Users can even add solar modules and remote inspection modules when necessary.

In Datang Fuxin Coal Chemical’s capital construction project, the BioComb technology was used to solve reuse of domestic water, making it the first large-scale infrastructure project with zero discharge in China. The technology was awarded two certificates of technical achievements, and the innovation award of Jilin Province, and new product certification in Beijing. Its successful implementation in a printing factory was covered by the Beijing TV Station. BioCombThe BioComb equipment in operation only requires inspection by tours with a little operation, and can be operated by ordinary workers after training. It has ultimately solved the "operation difficulties" in rural wastewater treatment. The BioComb equipment is housed international standard shipping containers, which are highly strong, with guaranteed service life of at least 10 - 15 years. Featuring less equipment and low failure rate, it save over 40% operational costs compared to other technologies available in the market, with power consumption as low as 0.3kWh per tonne of water. Therefore it has the potential for general application. As a ground-breaking technology for rural wastewater treatment, how will the BioComb technology work with investors in explore the increasingly competitive market of rural wastewater treatment? Let's wait and see.