Challenge

The existing landfill leachate treatment plant at Nantycaws was failing to meet consent levels, and Carmarthenshire County Council was tankering on a daily basis. The Council was therefore looking for a robust treatment solution that would meet EA consent requirements and reduce the frequency of tankering.

Solution

Working in collaboration with WEBS, EnSo International Ltd was called in to offer a temporary treatment solution, in the form of an Ocean Professional Nitrification Plant, to test the design concept. The temporary plant was designed to take a proportion of the flow to enable EnSo / WEBS to establish the treatability of the effluent and to fine-tune the process design for a full treatment system. The 18-month trial proved successful and the rol-out of a permanent system took place in October 2012.

Following the trial, EnSo extended the temporary treatment plant to include a 40m³ pre-aeration and settlement tank followed by four 40m³ moving bed bio-reactor (MBBR) tanks. A drum filter was also installed as tertiary treatment to remove any residual solids.

Biomarble from the Warden Biomedia range was selected as the random filter media range for the pre-aeration tanks and moving bed bio-reactor (MBBR) tanks in the landfill leachate treatment plant at Nantycaws. 

Outcome

The system has proved successful on two counts:

  • Firstly, costs have reduced by 95% as tankering is now significantly reduced
  • Secondly, the effluent quality is well within the consent limit

Dirk Daude, Commercial Manager at EnSo International Ltd said:

"We are very pleased with the results achieved by Warden's Biomedia. Biomarble from their Biomedia range has been a great asset in the design process of our landfill leachate treatment plant and has met expectations for efficiency and performance".