Performance of

green walls in

treating brewery

wastewater

Scott Wolcott

Rochester Institute

of Technology

USA

Source: St. John Fischer College (GLTi, 2015)

Source: Unknown

What’s the

problem?

• Wastewater from small to medium sized

food and beverage manufacturers • High solids content

• High organic matter content

• High nitrogen and phosphorous content

• Variable pH and intermittent flows

Source: Napa WW Treatment Aeration (Quakenbush, 2009)

What’s the

problem?

• Successful businesses! • 79% increase in number of craft breweries in New

York State during 2013 .

• ~300% increase in number of wineries in New York State between 2000 and 2013

• Overloaded onsite treatment systems

• Increased sewer use fees

What’s the

problem?

• Overloaded onsite treatment systems

• Releases to the environment

• New commercial sized septic system

• Increased sewer use fees • 10,000 BBL/yr ~ $7,700/month (USD)

• Traditional wastewater treatment system • High capital and operation costs

Previous Research:

Grey water and green walls

• Bussy, 2009

• Thesis, Uppsalla

University, Sweden

• System with 2 ponds d/s

• Recycle: 3.6 times

• Media: ~ 1 cm gravel

• BOD removal efficiency of

green wall: 46%

• 8.0 mg/l => 4.32 mg/l

Figure 5. Green Wall (Bussy, 2009)

• Svete, 2012

• Thesis, Norwegian

University of Life

Sciences

• Intermittent dosing

• Bed media: 2 – 4 mm

filtralite

• BOD removal

efficiency: 98%

• 129 mg/l => 2 mg/l

Source: Green Wall (Svete, 2012)

Previous Research:

Grey water and green walls

• Cameron, 2012 • Dissertation, Penn State,

US

• Integrated biofilter

• Media: Norlite, manure, peat moss, tire crumb, potting soil, and crushed limestone.

• Batch, 72 hours

• 35% increase in BOD removal (95%) when green wall was incorporated (w/o plants)

Source: Integrated biofilter (Cameron, 2012)

Previous Research:

Grey water and green walls

Are Green Walls the

Answer?

• Yes and No

• Advantages

• Low capital and

operating costs

• Small footprint

• Disadvantages

• Unproven

technology

Conceptual Green Wall Pretreatment Schematic (Wolcott, 2014)

This research

Source: Green Wall at Greentopia (Martin, 2011)

• Objective

• Evaluate the use of

green walls for

pretreatment of high

strength wastewater.

• 4 scenarios

• Media, only

• Media with plants

• Media with biofilm

• Media with plants and

biofilm

Methodology

• Poraver media

• 4 – 8 mm diameter

• Recycled glass

• Lightweight

• Golden Pothos

• Epipremnum aureum

Source: http://walls-of-green.com/wog/products/green-walls

• Green Living

Technologies

International

• 100 mm (4-inch)

panels Source: http://www.soa.utexas.edu/matlab/search/materials

Methodology

• Batch process

• Partially treated WW

• Turbidity: 70 - 600 mg/l

• BOD5: 500 – 1,200 mg/l

• Total Nitrogen: 40 mg/l

• Total Phosphorous: 4 mg/l

• No duplication of

experiments

• Used R2 values to

evaluate the

reliability of the

analytical results

• Normalized results

• C/Co

• 24-hr removal efficiency

• < 60% for scenarios w/o biofilm

• > 60% for scenarios w/biofilm

• R2 > 0.96 scenarios w/biofilm

Results

• Scenarios with biofilm outperformed scenarios without biofilm. • > 50% removal after 5 hours

• R2 > 0.90 scenarios with biofilm

• R2 < 0.72 scenarios without biofilm

Results

• Scenarios with biofilm outperformed

scenarios without.

• > 50% removal after 3 hours

Results

• No significant removal observed

Results

Green Wall Results

Media with plants and biofilm, % removal

Parameter/time 6 hrs 12 hrs 24 hrs

Turbidity (solids) 50% 60% 70%

BOD5 (biodegradable compounds)

70% 80% 85%

Nitrogen 60% 60% 65%

Phosphorous 5% 5% 10%

Discussion

• Preliminary testing suggests that green

walls can reduce some components of

high strength organic wastewater

• Turbidity and BOD

• 50% removal in 6 hours or less (except media

with biofilm)

• Biofilm had a positive impact

• Nitrogen and Phosphorous

• Inconclusive

Current Research

• Better flow path control

• Media selection • Growstone

• Plant selection • Golden Pothos

• Stronger WW

• Triplication

Acknowledgements

Peter Martin, Civil Engineering Technology Graduate 2012.

Reference List • Arnold, Jason. (2010). 052.jpg [image file.] Retrieved from:

http://jasonarnoldmsu.blogspot.com/2010/11/green-walls.html

• Goodman, Jennifer. (2012). 1111b_EH_MillDist_GreenWall_6_tcm10-1597135.jpg [image file.] Retrieved from: http://www.builderonline.com/green-building/green-roof-and-wall-market-expected-to-grow.aspx

• GLTi. (2015). St. John Fischer College.jpg [image file.] Retrieved from: email from info@agreenroof.com received on June 24, 2015

• Martin, Peter. (2011). GreenWall at Greentopia, September 2011. [image file.] Rochester, New York

• Quackenbush, Jeff. (2009). Lyve-Australia_c. [image file.] Retrieved from: http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/16650/napa-sanitation-looks-at-options-for-winery-wastewater/

• Shevory, Kristina (2010). Gardens That Grow on Walls. New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/garden/06vertical.html?_r=0

• Svete, Lindsey. (2012). Vegetated Greywater Treatment Walls: Design Modifications for Intermittent Media Filters (Masters Thesis). Department of Mathematical Sciences and Technology, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

• Uppsala. (2009). An Innovative Way to Treat Wastewater. (Thesis) Uppsala University, Sweden, Retrieved from http://susprogramme.wikispaces.com/file/detail/green+wall+thesis+part+2.pdf.