Wastewater

Endless Possibilities for Your Wastewater

Recognized for providing effective solutions to improve water quality, Using specialized products and services, Magnus also responds to new environmental challenges that our customers are facing when discharging wastewater. We can help find the best wastewater treatment solution for your needs.

Fats, Oils and Grease Removal

There are many sources of fats, oils, and grease in industrial wastewaters from agri-food processes, industrial manufacturing, metal processing, lubrication, cleaning, etc. Although gravity separators are used, fats, oils and grease often end up in the water in an emulsified form, which requires a physicochemical treatment method.

Our solutions for fats, oils and grease removal include:

• Emulsion breakers, which improve oil/water separation, wastewater clarification and oil recovery

• Innovative absorption technologies that are chemically selective to hydrocarbons C10-C50

• Coagulation-flocculation through flotation for vegetable and animal fat removal

• Ceramic membranes to remove concentrated cutting oils

Heavy Metals

Heavy metals dissolved in water are problematic for municipalities because they are toxic to the bacteria used to break down organic waste.

They mainly come from machining or manufacturing processes using the following metals: As, Sb, Ag, As, Be, B, Cd, Cr, Cu, Sn, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Se, Th, Zn, Zr.

We designed our solutions to reduce the levels of heavy metals in wastewater relative to the conventional hydroxide precipitation process. Our techniques for achieving optimal heavy metal removal are:

• Pre-treatment using acids and alkalis: Some metals require reduction or oxidation before they can be precipitated. ORP and pH analyzers are used to ensure proper control.

• Controlled precipitation: Formation of insoluble particles from dissolved materials in solution. Special chelating agents are used to remove complexed and/or chelated metals and mixed metals.

• Liquid-solid separation: Coagulants and flocculants suitable for heavy metals are used in microfiltration, DAF and gravity settling processes.

COD and BOD

Chemical Oxygen Demand and Biological Oxygen Demand (COD and BOD) Removal

COD and BOD are general indicators of water pollution levels. It is possible to reduce COD and BOD through coagulation and flocculation when they occur in conjunction with total suspended solids. Soluble COD and BOD require biological treatment.

Total suspended solids (TSS)

Whether through gravity or flotation, liquid-solid separation is an effective method for removing TSS. However, coagulation and flocculation processes greatly improve the speed and efficiency of TSS treatment.

Phosphorus/phosphate

This chemical creates a widespread environmental problem because it promotes the growth of algae in aquatic environments. It comes from detergents and surface preparation agents.

Precipitation by coagulation and flocculation are effective in reducing the phosphate content of wastewater, which integrates well with liquid-solid separation.

Phosphorus is also removed through biological digestion.

Neutralization

To meet the discharge standards of the receiving environment, one of the key parameters to monitor is the pH of wastewater. It is usually a relatively straightforward procedure, as the addition of acid or alkaline agents to reach a set point is often sufficient to achieve the target pH levels.

The difficulty lies in the fluctuating quality of the water being neutralized, which is why a customized design is so important. Magnus has the formulations needed to respond to such situations and offers tailored pH neutralization systems that take these factors into account.

Foam Control

Foam in wastewater treatment processes is a critical operational problem. The most common types of foam in wastewater are chemical and biological foam.

• Chemical foams are caused mainly by surface-active agents, including soaps/detergents, surfactants, cleaners, reactions between caustics and oils/grease and other discharged chemicals. Surfactant-induced foam is stable, white in color and irregular in shape.

• Biological foams are caused mainly by the growth of filamentous bacteria. This type of foam is exceptionally stable and can be dry in appearance, comprised of tiny circular bubbles and typically brownish or grayish.

We have a versatile foam control product line with agents that can perform both foam-breaking and anti-foaming functions specific to chemical or biological foam.

Sludge

Dewatering

Every liquid-solid separation process produces a volume of sludge that must be managed. This is referred to as capture, segregation, dewatering, if necessary, and disposal.

The dewatering process aims to reduce the water content of sludge. It offers a significant financial gain in the handling and disposal processes, which is even higher if the sludge is going to be incinerated.

Several methods and types of equipment are available to dewater the sludge produced during wastewater treatment. The best-known methods are filter presses, belt presses and centrifuging. Other concepts using lower pressure provide a good compromise in the efficiency-price ratio. Magnus offers several of these alternatives, depending on your needs.

Adding a specialized polymer such as POLYMAG® for sludge dewatering can play a big role in the efficiency of the wastewater treatment process. It allows a greater volume of water to be extracted more quickly from the treated sludge. Choosing an optimum polymer helps loosen the “cake” that forms.

Odor Control

Odor concerns continue to climb for many industries. For some plants, odor issues have turned into a significant operational problem.

Our odor control solutions include technologies that reduce or eliminate odors caused by hydrogen sulfide (H2S), volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and general nuisance odors.

Hydrogen sulfide and volatile fatty acids

Our bioaugmentation solutions can biologically remove harmful hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and volatile fatty acids (VFAs) in lift stations, wastewater collection systems, lagoons, sludge-holding tanks and digesters.

Nuisance odors

Our odor neutralization technology is non-toxic, environmentally friendly, cost effective and highly efficient. It treats only the odorous agents in the airborne or vapor phase of the odorous material. Our solution is not a masking agent: it reduces or eliminates the malodor by altering and neutralizing the compounds’ odorous components, converting them to molecules that are entirely non-odorous and non-toxic.