The Side Effects of Feeding Cultured Bacterial in Collection System on WWTP Operations, a Case Study

Cultured bacteria addition is one of the technologies used for odor control and FOG (fat, oil, and grease) removal in wastewater collection systems. A set of full scale trials for odor control using bacterial addition in a 16 MGD system were conducted over a period of two years. The objectives of this study were to identify areas that could impact wastewater treatment plant operations due to the effect of bacterial addition in the collection system, to identify the level of those impacts, and to present some interesting findings from the recently completed case study. The plant operation data before and during the bacterial addition were reviewed. The application of the cultured bacteria presented in the study was found to have significant impacts on the operation of the WWTP in terms of influent BOD/TSS loading, primary settling, sludge production, energy use, dissolved sulfides concentration, and methane production.