Treatment of wastewater and sludges

A system for wastewater treatment comprising an anaerobic reactor, a sludge separator connected to receive the discharge from said anaerobic reactor, a sludge conditioner connected to receive sludge from said sludge separator, and a flow control box, said flow control box including a first compartment defining an inlet for receiving the wastewater, a second compartment adjacent to said first compartment and communicating with said first compartment through a bottom passageway, and a third compartment adjacent to said second compartment, a weir between said second compartment and said third compartment for limiting the liquid level in said second compartment, pipe means for directing liquid effluent from said sludge separator to said second compartment, means for discharging liquid from said third compartment, and means for directing liquid from said first compartment to said anaerobic reactor.

Apparatus as claimed in claimed 1, and further including a sludge separation device built in at the top at the free gas-liquid interface.

Apparatus for treatment of wastewater comprising a sludge conditioner, an anaerobic reactor disposed above said sludge conditioner and adjacent thereto, means for feeding wastewater into said anaerobic reactor, means for transferring conditioned sludge from said sludge conditioner to said anaerobic reactor, and means for mixing said conditioned sludge with said wastewater, said apparatus including a shell defining a plurality of lower compartments, each lower compartment of said plurality of lower compartments constituting a sludge conditioner so there is a plurality of sludge conditioners, said shell further defining a plurality of upper reactor cells sequentially connected, said means for transferring conditioned sludge including pipe means from each of said lower compartments to said anaerobic reactor cells.

Apparatus for treatment of wastewater, said apparatus including at least two consecutive stages for treatment, each stage comprising:

• inlet means for wastewater influent, a reaction means for contacting wastewater and biomass to promote biochemical conversion of the constituents of wastewater and growth of biomass, separator means in communication with said reaction means for receiving at least a portion of the flow of said reaction means and separating sludge and water, means for feeding the separated water downstream and means for feeding the separated sludge upstream;
• and, discharge means for discharging effluent from the last stage.

An apparatus for gas treatment, said apparatus comprising an anaerobic reactor, a sludge separator, said anaerobic reactor being disposed above said sludge separator, an aerobic reactor with a sludge separator disposed above the said anaerobic reactor, means for feeding the gas to be treated to the said anaerobic reactor, means for transferring the anaerobically treated gas to the aerobic reactor, a gas effluent line attached to the said aerobic reactor, means for recycling aerobic sludge within the aerobic reactor/sludge/separator, means for transferring aerobic sludge to the anaerobic reactor, means for feeding an oxygen containing gas into the said aerobic reactor, means for recycling an anaerobic supernatant and the anaerobic sludge within the anaerobic reactor/sludge separator/sludge conditioner system, means for transferring said anaerobic supernatant and sludge to the aerobic stage, means for releasing the anaerobic gases from the sludge conditioner and the anaerobic reactor, means for adding water, means for discharging excess water from the system, and means for discharging anaerobic sludge from the system.