Problem:
A major full service bakery in Northern Ohio has a pretreatment plant for treatment of bakery waste before discharging wastewater to the local village wastewater treatment plant. The average daily wastewater influent to the pretreatment plant has a concentration of the following: 6,000 to over 100,000 mg/l CBOD; average suspended solids of 6,000 mg/l and oil and grease concentrations of 800 to 1,000 mg/l.

The average daily flow through this plant is 15,000 to 25,000 gallons per day. This waste is treated aerobically in an activated sludge system consisting of two 50,000 gallon aerated tanks in series. The waste is then pumped from the second aeration tank onto a gravity belt with polymer being injected into the waste stream.

The objective of adding the Histosol OP-Bio product to this system was to try to increase the biological activity and further reduce the oil and grease.

Solution:
Histosol OP-Bio was added to the system with an initial charge of two gallons, then one quart per day was added for a ten-day period. The maintenance dose was then reduced to one pint per day.

Conclusion:
The second aeration tank took on a darker brown color, and there is no longer any type of grease buildup on the paddles of the gravity thickener belt. The dosage of polymer has been reduced by approximately 70%.

The average effluent discharge to the local village POTW has a CBOD average of less than 200 mg/l, TSS of 200-400 mg/l and an average oil and grease of 15 mg/l or less.