Achieving EBPR in a Non-Ideal World

Effluent phosphorus discharge limitations have become more and more prevalent at Water Resource Recovery Facilities (WRRFs) in North America. Ingenuity has long been a trait of wastewater professionals, and as more facilities implement both chemical and biological phosphorus removal technologies, engineers and operators develop unique solutions to achieve enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) under non-ideal conditions. By understanding the principles of EBPR, facilities are able to adapt their existing infrastructure to provide the conditions that allow for the proliferation of phosphate accumulating organisms (PAOs) and high levels of biological phosphorus removal. This paper provides an outline of the key principles to achieve EBPR, and three case studies where these conditions were applied in “non-ideal” process configurations.