Systems and methods for biological transformation, concentration, and recovery of selenium from wastewater
AssigneesArizona Board of Regents on behalf of Arizona State University, The Regents of the University of Michigan, Board of Regents, The University of Texas System
InventorsJoshua BOLTZ, Bruce RITTMANN, Glen DAIGGER, Lynn KATZ
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to methods for biological wastewater treatment for Se control in Se-laden wastewater. The Se contaminants in the wastewater include the Se oxyanions selenate (SeO42-) and selenite (HSeO3−), which are biochemically reduced and transformed to elemental selenium (Se0) by microorganisms through anaerobic biological reduction. The resulting Se0 is entrained in the biomass, which is further processed to enable the efficient recovery of concentrated Se0.
Claims32
A selenium-recovery wastewater treatment system, comprising:
- a bioreactor configured to receive and process wastewater comprising selenium oxyanions;
- a membrane filter configured to filter the wastewater and generate permeate;
- a biomass processing unit fluidly coupled to the bioreactor and configured to receive waste sludge comprising biomass and elemental selenium from the bioreactor, treat the waste sludge, and reduce a concentration of the biomass within the waste sludge;
- and
- a harvesting unit fluidly coupled to the biomass processing unit and configured to receive the treated waste sludge from the biomass processing unit and harvest a selenium-rich biosolid from the treated waste sludge.
A method of recovering selenium from wastewater comprising:
- providing an influent wastewater comprising selenium oxyanions to a biological wastewater treatment system;
- producing a waste sludge from the influent wastewater, the waste sludge comprising biomass and elemental selenium;
- treating the waste sludge to reduce a total mass of the waste sludge without reducing the elemental selenium to produce a processed waste sludge;
- and
- harvesting a selenium-rich biosolid from the processed waste sludge.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.