Wastewater treatment facilities often encounter process upsets, which hinder the biological treatment processes and disrupt the microbial populations essential for the degradation of organic matter. For these reasons, recovering quickly from these events is important for maintaining compliance with environmental regulations and operational efficiency.

Here’s how our WWW™ ArxZyme™ bioaugmentation products are an effective solution for rapid recovery from wastewater process upsets, enabling you to quickly rebuild beneficial microbial species and accelerate biological activity.

WWW™ ArxZyme™ Bioaugmentation Products and Mechanisms of Action

Here’s a brief overview of our ArxZyme bioaugmentation products:

• ArxZyme Bioreinforcement fortifies existing microbial communities by boosting process-specific and customizable microbial strains.
• ArxZyme Start-up establishes and stabilizes microbial populations during the initial stages of wastewater treatment or following a severe process upset.
• ArxZyme Nitrifiers are specialized microbial strains that facilitate the nitrification process, converting ammonia to nitrate.
• ArxZyme Micronutrients in ArxZyme bioaugmentation products play a vital role in accelerating microbial growth and activity.

ArxZyme bioaugmentation products are available in industry-leading concentrations, including 73 million CFU/ml for liquid products and 5 billion CFU/g for dry products. These high concentrations ensure biomass is quickly rebuilt after even severe upset events, allowing you to return to optimal treatment performance as soon as possible. Here’s how they work:

Rapidly rebuilding biomass. ArxZyme bioaugmentation products have a high concentration of microbial strains that rapidly rebuild biomass. In doing so, they help maintain treatment process continuity and prevent the release of untreated or partially treated wastewater.

Enhancing the degradation of organic pollutants. ArxZyme microbial strains are selected for their ability to degrade a wide range of organic pollutants like those that are toxic. This feature enhances degradation efficiency and helps in maintaining treatment process stability.

Nitrification recovery. Nitrifying bacteria are sensitive to toxic shocks and environmental changes. ArxZyme Nitrifiers provide a high concentration of nitrifying bacteria, maintaining ammonia removal efficiency and preventing the accumulation of toxic ammonia levels.

Micronutrient fortification. The addition of micronutrients supports the metabolic activities of the microbial community — a crucial step for sustaining high levels of biological activity during recovery periods.

ArxZyme Bioaugmentation Products in Action

One wastewater treatment plant experienced a toxic shock due to a sudden influx of industrial effluent containing quaternary ammonium compounds (QAA), which reduced the microbial population and led to poor treatment performance and high ammonia levels.

To address these issues, we administered ArxZyme Nitrifiers to reestablish nitrification, added ArxZyme Bioreinforcement to boost the microbial population and supplied micronutrients to support microbial recovery. Afterward, there was a rapid recovery of nitrification activity within 48 hours, significant reduction in ammonia and BOD levels within 72 hours and the restoration of normal treatment performance within a week.

For more information about process upset and recovery, including an overview of our ArxZyme bioaugmentation products and additional case studies, read our white paper.