Raw sewage coming into the treatment plant (the influent) contains:

1. WATER


2. GRIT - stones, sand, coffee grounds, cigarette butts, pieces of rubber, plastic and cloth, and other non biodegradable matter.


3. SUSPENDED SOLIDS - particles of organic waste that are able to be settled out of the water.


4. DISSOLVED SOLIDS - particles of organic waste that are very fine and soluble, and can not be settled out of the liquid.

        The job of the treatment plant is to remove as much of the grit, dissolved and suspended solids as possible. When these are removed, the cleaned water (the effluent) is discharged into a lake, river or ocean, or simply allowed to trickle down into the ground.

        All municipal sewage treatment plants are regulated by state and Federal agencies, and the performance of every treatment plant is measured by testing the treated effluent as it is discharged from the facility. The most important measurement of water quality is the Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD).

         BOD is an indirect measurement of the amount of organic matter in the water. This test shows how much oxygen would be required (demanded) by aerobic bacteria if they were to digest all the organic material in the water. This test is based on the fundamental chemical reaction that describes bacterial digestion:

         Organic waste + Oxygen ----Bacteria----> Water + Carbon Dioxide

         BOD is expressed in parts per million, or "ppm". When the BOD of water is high, it means that the water has a lot of organic matter in it - and that bacteria would demand - or use - a lot oxygen or digest that amount of organic material. Likewise, a low BOD measurement shows that most or all of the organic material has been removed from the water.

         As raw sewage influent enters the treatment plant, the first step is to filter out any sand, grit, stones, cigarette butts and other hard, insoluble matter. This is done by a mechanical filter, screen assemblies and settling basins.

The next step in the process is to separate the suspended organic solids from the water. This is done in a device called a primary clarifier. In this clarifier, the suspended solids are settled to the bottom, sometimes with the aid of flocculating agents. After settling out as much of the suspended solids a possible, these solids are pumped out of the bottom of the primary clarifier as sludge. This process removes most of the organic waste from the water. However, the liquid portion that remains behind is still far from clean. It still contains all the dissolved solids, and so further processing of this liquid is required.

         After this point, the sludge and the liquid portions of the waste are treated separately. First, we will follow the liquid portion through the remaining treatment processes, until it is clean and ready for discharge. The remaining liquid contains  dissolved organic matter that must be removed by bacterial digestion before the water is actually clean. This is done in another device, often called the oxidation tank (pond). This device is easy to identify by its bubbling and gurgling action, caused by air being forced through it (aeration). This aeration promotes the bacterial digestion process, and within several hours, the bacteria will digest most of the remaining dissolved solids.

         When the digestion is deemed to be complete, the liquid waste then goes into a "final" clarifier or finishing pond. Here, the liquid is held motionless, and any remaining solids (including the bacteria) are settled to the bottom, to be pumped off and treated with the sludge. The remaining liquid will be quite clear, as almost all of the organic matter has been removed from it. At this point, the water must meet state and Federal guidelines and be clean enough for discharge.

        Often, the water receives on final treatment before it is discharged to a lake, ocean, stream, river, etc. The final treatment is disinfection to kill any and all the bacteria that being discharged into the environment. There are several different methods of disinfection, but chlorination (using chlorine gas ) is the most common disinfection process used in the world today.

        The sludge that was separated out in the primary clarifier is pumped to a digester, where it is also treated by bacterial action. This sludge must eventually be disposed of by some method, such as landfilling, incineration, ocean disposal or application to farmlands as fertilizer. The purpose of treating the sludge is to:

1.  Reduces the weight and volume of the sludge.

2.  Transform the sludge into a liquid or solid cake form that can be processed, handled, transported and disposed of easily and economically.

3.  Reduces the odors as much as possible.

4.  Kill all the pathogenic organisms before sludge is returned to the environment.

        As you can imagine, processing of the sludge is designed to accomplish these goals at the lowest possible cost. Thus, the sludge treatment process used  in a particular treatment facility will vary according to how the sludge will be disposed of in the end. for example, if the sludge will be incinerated  in a high temperature furnace, the main objective of sludge treatment will be to reduce the water content, so it burns  better. The actual incineration will take care of the other concerns.

        Today, most sludge is disposed of by returning it to the environment. That is, the treated sludge is applied to form fields as a fertilizer/soil amendment. When this is done, the sludge must be treated carefully, so that is does not pose a pollution or other environmental threat to people, animals, crops, or groundwater.

        Digester system can be designed for either aerobic or anaerobic operation. In either case, it is very important that the proper types of bacteria be  present to obtain the fastest, most complete digestion. You can see how important the bacteria are by examining the cause of the common digester failure.

       An aerobic digester may be functioning well for a long time. Then, within the space of a few days, the operator will notice drastic changes occurring. The temperature in the digester drops, the sludge takes on an unusual appearance, and the normal bubbling and churning slows - then stops completely. The digester has gone septic, can is not functioning at all. No bacteria digestion is going on to break down the sludge.

        This type of failure can have several causes, such as waste waters that contain toxic heavy metals, pesticides, or petroleum, but the most common cause is simply lack of the proper types of bacteria. The digester stops working because there are not enough good waste-digesting and displacing the desirable bacteria. The only way to fix this situation is to kill all bacteria present, then re-seed with Bac-Zyme^® product  that  contains the right kinds of waste digesting bacteria. This is done with a very powerful disinfectant chemical called hydrogen peroxide.

       The process of restarting a digester is laborious, time consuming, expensive, and involves handling very hazardous chemicals. It may take days to accomplish, holding up all other operations, and the treatment plant will not be able to treat the influent waste water. Because the waste flow cannot be stopped, the treatment plant may be forced to discharge raw, untreated sewage -- violating permit limits. State and Federal laws and causing dangerous pollution.

       Our product can be added to the aeration tank, aerated lagoon, lift stations, digesters, oxidation tanks, trickling filter, settling tanks, polishing ponds, septic tank, septic system, drain line and grease trap.

       The best way to keep a digester working smoothly, efficiently and without disruption, is to add daily or weekly doses of our bacteria and enzyme product. This will ensure that there are always enough of the good waste digesting bacteria present to prevent any disruption of the digester.

         In addition, the specially cultured bacteria and enzymes in our products  will make a whole treatment process work better.

• Reduced overall BOD, COD and SS in final effluent.

• Increased the overall waste treatment systems capacity.

• Rapid recovery time from upsets.

• Improved settling of floc formation in the final clarifier.

• Improved waste degradation of specific target compounds.

• Enable to absorb the shock of toxic influent.

• Enhanced the stability of wastewater treatment systems.

• Enhanced odor control through natural organic acid oxidation.

• Environmental friendly and biodegradable component.