Bio-Surf

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Great

\estern

Sagar

Denver, Co 1 orado, December 11 , 1973 . • • . The energy crunch may 11

crunch11

a lot of pollution control facilities.

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H1e time may come when there won't be enough available energy

to op8rate industrial pollution control facilities that require

large amounts of energy,11 _{says Gob Munroe, director of envirornr.ental}

affairs for The Great West~rn Sugar Company. "That's why we're enthusiastic about the possibil itics of a new waste water treatment proc:e3s that requires only one-fifth the energy of most other processes.11

The new process is called Bio-Surf, which is short for Autotrol Rotating Biological Surface, and Gteat Hestern Sugar hopes it will be the ~nswcr to cleanup of its factory flume water. This is the water th~t is used to transport sugarbeets into its factorie~. In the"process, t~e watt~r becomes saturated with dirt and bits and pieces of beets which m~st be removed before the water can be reused or disposed of.

In essence~ the Bio-Surf process consists of a series of rotating plastic discs supported just above the waste water to be treated. The lower half of each disc extends into the waste while the upper half of the disc is in the air. A special type of bacteria grow on the surface

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and are alternately submerged to absorb food and then raised out of the 1 iq•.1id to oxidize or "digest" the absorbed material as the discs rotate.

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GWS Tests New System Add One

The process was developed by Autotrol Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and is represented in the Rocky Mountain area by Ted D. Miller Associates of Denver. The Miller firm has built a pilot model of the

process, which will undergo studies at the GWS factory in Billings, Montana, during the 1973/74 processing season.

Ted Miller says the studies are expected to prove the feasibility of a full seal_ treatment plant, and succ~ssful results will have a far reaching effect for the beet sugar industry. Environmentally sound features of the system l1sted by Miller include:

1. Energy requirements -- one-fifth that of most other processes contemplated.

2. Util ization of waste heat presently posing thermal pollution problems. Heat from factory condensor cooling water will be used to keep the bacteria at their optimum temperature of 55° F. 3. Utilization of waste ammonia.

4. Introduction of specialized bacteria to investigate feasibility of converting waste to edible protein for use as a cattle feed supplement.

Miller also adds that full scale plants are available to both municipalities and industrial accounts on long term lease agreements. Power savings compared to other treatment processes, including those now in use, will often pay the total lease cost.

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