GASIFICATION GREY WATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The subject matter disclosed herein relates to gasification process plants for chemical
production and/or to integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) power plants.
More specifically, the disclosed embodiments relate to grey water treatment systems
for treating grey water produced by gasification.
Fossil fuels, such as solid coal, liquid petroleum, or natural gas, may be gasified for
use in the production of electricity, chemicals, synthetic fuels, or for a variety of other
applications. Gasification involves reacting a carbonaceous fuel and oxygen at a very
high temperature to produce syngas, a fuel containing carbon monoxide and
hydrogen, which burns more efficiently and cleaner than the fuel in its original state.
A byproduct of gasification is grey water, which may include fine particles of ash,
metals, ammonia, and biodegradable organic matter. Some or all of the grey water
components may be regulated by state and/or federal agencies. Accordingly, the grey
water may be treated to remove less desirable components prior to discharging the
grey water from the gasification system.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Certain embodiments commensurate in scope with the originally claimed invention
are summarized below. These embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the
claimed invention, but rather these embodiments are intended only to provide a brief
summary of possible forms of the invention. Indeed, the invention may encompass a
variety of forms that may be similar to or different from the embodiments set forth
below.
In a first embodiment, a grey water treatment system includes an oxidation reactor
configured to oxidize grey water, and a biological reduction and precipitation system
that includes microbes configured to remove one or more target components from
oxidized grey water.
In a second embodiment, a grey water treatment system includes an oxidation reactor
configured to oxidize selenium species within grey water, and a biological reduction
and precipitation system that includes microbes configured to chemically reduce and
precipitate oxidized selenium species from the grey water.
In a third embodiment, a grey water treatment system includes a pretreatment system
configured to remove scaling components from grey water to produce pretreated grey
water. The grey water treatment system further includes a biotreatment system
configured to oxidize the pretreated grey water and to remove one or more target
components from oxidized pretreated grey water to produce biotreated grey water.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will
become better understood when the following detailed description is read with
reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts
throughout the drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of an integrated gasification
combined cycle system;
FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the grey water treatment
system of FIG. 1; and
FIG. 3 is a detailed schematic block diagram of the grey water treatment system of
FIG. 2 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
One or more specific embodiments of the present invention will be described below.
In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, all features of an
actual implementation may not be described in the specification. It should be
appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any
engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be
made to achieve the developers' specific goals, such as compliance with systemrelated
and business-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to
another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be
complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of
design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of
this disclosure.
When introducing elements of various embodiments of the present invention, the
articles "a," "an," "the," and "said" are intended to mean that there are one or more of
the elements. The terms "comprising," "including," and "having" are intended to be
inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements other than the listed
elements.
The present disclosure is directed to grey water treatment systems that may be
employed in gasification systems or integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC)
systems to treat grey water produced during gasification. The grey water treatment
systems include biological reduction and precipitation biotreatment systems with
microbes specially designed to remove target components from the grey water. In
particular, rather than removing organic components, the microbes may be specially
designed to remove target components, such as selenium, arsenic, mercury,
molybdenum, nitrate, and vanadium. The microbes may remove the target
components by chemically reducing and precipitating the target components. Further,
the microbes may convert some of the target components into other chemical
components that may be released as a gas.
The grey water treatment systems also may include pretreatment equipment, such as
chemical reactors, clarifiers, and filters that remove scaling components and trace
metals upstream of the biological reduction and precipitation biotreatment systems.
Further, oxidation reactors may be included upstream of the biological reduction and
precipitation biotreatment systems to oxidize some of the target components to allow
the target components to be removed through reduction and precipitation. Moreover,
post-treatment equipment, such as membrane bioreactors may be included to remove
additional components from the grey water.
FIG. 1 illustrates an IGCC system 10 that may produce grey water as a byproduct of
gasification. The IGCC system 10 includes a gasification system 12 integrated with a
power generation system 14. Within the gasification system 12, a carbonaceous fuel
source 16 may be utilized as a source of energy to produce syngas. The fuel source
16 may include coal, petroleum coke, biomass, wood-based materials, agricultural
wastes, tars, coke oven gas and asphalt, or other carbon containing materials.
The fuel source 16 may be introduced into the gasification system 12 via a feedstock
preparation system 18. The feedstock preparation system 18 may resize or reshape
the fuel source 16, for example, by chopping, milling, shredding, pulverizing,
briquetting, or palletizing the fuel source 16 to create a fuel slurry 20. According to
certain embodiments, the feedstock preparation system 18 may include a grinding
mill. Further, within the feedstock preparation system 18, additives 22, such as water,
or other suitable liquids, may be added to the fuel source 16 to create the fuel slurry
20. However, in other embodiments, where no liquid additives are employed, the fuel
slurry 20 may be a dry feedstock.
From the feedstock preparation system 18, the fuel slurry 20 may be directed to a
gasification and scrubbing system 24. The gasification and scrubbing system 24 may
include a gasifier where the fuel slurry 20 may be mixed with oxygen 26 and steam 27
to produce syngas. The oxygen 26 may be provided by an air separator 28 that
separates air 30 into oxygen 26 and nitrogen 32. The steam 27 may be recycled
within the IGCC system 10 and may be provided from a downstream gas cooling and
treatment system 34.
Within the gasification and scrubbing system 24, the gasifier may react the fuel slurry
20 with a limited amount of oxygen (e.g., partial oxidation) at elevated pressures (e.g.
from absolute pressures of approximately 20 bar to 85 bar) and temperatures (e.g.,
approximately 700 °C to 1600 °C) to partially oxidize the fuel slurry 20 and produce
syngas. Due to chemical reactions between the oxygen 26, steam 27, and carbon
within the fuel slurry 20, the syngas may include hydrogen, carbon monoxide, and
carbon dioxide, as well as other less desirable components, such as ash, sulfur,
nitrogen, and chloride, present in the carbonaceous fuel source 16.
To convert the fuel slurry 20 into syngas, the gasifier first may heat the fuel slurry 20
to undergo a pyrolysis process. According to certain embodiments, temperatures
inside the gasifier 20 may range from approximately 150 °C to 700 °C during the
pyrolysis process, depending on the type of fuel source 16 utilized to generate the fuel
slurry 20. The heating of the fuel slurry 20 during the pyrolysis process may generate
a solid, e.g., char, and residue gases, e.g., carbon monoxide, and hydrogen.
A combustion process may then occur in the gasifier. The combustion may include
introducing oxygen 26 to the char and residue gases. The char and residue gases may
react with the oxygen 26 to form carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, which
provides heat for the subsequent gasification reactions. According to certain
embodiments, temperatures during the combustion process may range from
approximately 700 °C to 1600 °C. Next, steam 27 may be introduced into the gasifier
during a gasification step. The char may react with the carbon dioxide and steam 27
to produce carbon monoxide and hydrogen at temperatures ranging from
approximately 800 °C to 1100 °C. In essence, the gasifier utilizes steam 27 and
oxygen 26 to allow some of the feedstock to be "burned" to produce carbon monoxide
and energy, which drives a second reaction that converts further feedstock to
hydrogen and additional carbon dioxide, thereby producing syngas. The syngas may
include approximately 85% of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, as well as methane,
carbon dioxide, water, hydrogen chloride, hydrogen fluoride, carbonyl sulfide,
ammonia, hydrogen cyanide, and hydrogen sulfide (depending on the sulfur content
of the feedstock). Non-gasifiable ash material and unconverted and/or incompletely
converted fuel slurry 20 may be byproducts of the process that may exist as larger
particles of molten slag and smaller particles, referred to as fines.
The gasification and scrubbing system 24 also may include a cooler, such as a radiant
syngas cooler or a quench unit. Within the cooler, the syngas may be cooled and
saturated, causing less desirable components to solidify. In particular, the molten slag
may be rapidly cooled and solidified into coarse particles of slag 36 that may be
discharged from the gasification and scrubbing system 24 and provided to a slag
processing system 38. The slag processing system 38 may include equipment such as
a lockhopper, a drag conveyor, and/or a slag sump, among others. Within the slag
processing system 38, the slag 36 may be screened to reduce moisture and then
directed to disposal offsite. For example, the slag 36 may be used as road base or as
another building material.
In addition to producing slag 36, the gasification and scrubbing system 24 also may
produce black water 40 that includes fine particles of slag. The black water 40 may
be removed from the syngas within the quench unit and/or within a scrubber of the
gasification and scrubbing system 24. In particular, within the scrubber, additional
fines and other entrained gases, such as hydrogen chloride, may be removed. The
black water 40 may be discharged from the gasification and scrubbing system 24 and
directed to a black water processing system 42.
The black water processing system 42 may include equipment such as flash drums,
settling tanks, and condensers, among others that function to separate dissolved gases
and concentrate the fine particles. For example, the black water processing system 42
may include a series of flash drums that subject the black water 40 to a series of
pressure reductions that may cause the black water 40 to be partially evaporated and
cooled to remove dissolved gases 43. According to certain embodiments, the
dissolved gases 43 may include syngas, which may be recovered in the gas cooling
and treatment system 34. The black water processing system 42 also may include a
settling process that produces separated fines 44 and grey water 45 that may be reused
in the gasification and scrubbing system 24. The black water processing system 42
also may produce a portion of grey water, referred to as grey water blowdown 46, that
is blown down for treatment to remove less desirable components. The separated
fines 44 may be recycled to the feed stock preparation system 14 where the fines may
be used to provide additional fuel.
The grey water blowdown 46 may be directed to a grey water treatment system 48
where the grey water blowdown 46 may undergo further processing to remove gases,
such as ammonia, and solids to produce a treated discharge 50. As described further
below with respect to FIG. 2, the grey water treatment system 48 may include
equipment such as chemical reactors, clarifiers, filters, and strippers, that soften,
clarify, and purify the grey water blowdown 46. The grey water treatment system 48
also may include bioreactors and membrane filtration units that remove organic
materials and metals from the grey water blowdown 46. According to certain
embodiments, the grey water treatment system 52 may include a biological reduction
and precipitation biotreatment system that uses specially developed mixtures of
naturally occurring microbes to chemically reduce and precipitate target components
from the grey water 46 to produce the treated discharge 50. The treated discharge 50
may be sent to deep well injection, combined with another stream for discharge, or
discharged to a body of water if the treated discharge 50 complies with environmental
regulations and/or permit requirements.
In addition to producing slag 36 and black water 40, the gasification and scrubbing
system 24 also produces scrubbed syngas 52. The scrubbed syngas 52 may be
directed to the syngas cooling and treatment system 34 where the syngas may be
further purified to produce sweetened syngas 54. The syngas cooling and treatment
system 34 may also produce a syngas condensate 47 that may be employed in the
gasification and scrubbing system 24 and/or the slag processing system 38.
According to certain embodiments, the syngas cooling and treatment system 34 may
include one or more water gas shift reactors that adjust the ratio of hydrogen to carbon
monoxide in the scrubbed syngas 52. The syngas cooling and treatment system 34
also may include one or more acid gas removal processes that may remove acid gases,
such as hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, among others. Further, the syngas
cooling and treatment system 34 may include one or more stripping processes for
removing ammonia. Moreover, a tail gas treatment process also may be included to
convert most of the residual sulfur compounds from upstream processing, such as
from a sulfur recovery unit, to hydrogen sulfide.
The sweetened syngas 54 may be used to generate power within the power generation
system 14. In particular, the sweetened syngas 54 may be directed to a combustor 56,
where the sweetened syngas 54 may be combusted at a much higher efficiency than
the original carbonaceous fuel fed into the feedstock preparation system 18. Air 57
also may be provided to the combustor 56 from a compressor 58 to mix with the
sweetened syngas 54 in a fuel to air ratio that facilitates combustion of the sweetened
syngas 54 to produce combustion gases 60. Nitrogen 32 may be provided to the
combustor 56 from the air separator 28 via a diluent nitrogen compressor 62 to cool
the combustion reaction.
The combustion gases 60 from the combustor 56 may be directed to a gas turbine 64,
which may drive the compressor 58 and/or an electrical generator 66. Exhaust 68
from the gas turbine 64 may then be fed to a heat recovery steam generation (HRSG)
system 70, which may recover heat from the exhaust 68 and from the steam 27
received from the gas cooling and treating system 34. The recovered heat may be
used to generate steam 72 for driving a steam turbine 74, which in turn may drive a
generator 76 to generate electricity.
Discharge steam 78 from the steam turbine 74 may be directed through a condenser
80 where the steam 78 may be condensed to provide condensed steam 82. To
condense the steam 78, a cooling fluid 84, such as water, may be circulated through
the condenser 80 from a cooling tower 86. The condensed steam 82 from the
condenser 80 may then be recycled to the HRSG system 70 where the condensed
steam 82 may again be heated to generate the steam 72 for the steam turbine 74.
As may be appreciated, the components of the IGCC system 10 are a simplified
depiction and are not intended to be limiting. For example, in certain embodiments,
additional equipment such as valves, temperature sensors, pressure sensors,
controllers, and/or storage tanks, among others, may be included. Further, although
the grey water treatment system 48 is described herein in the context of an IGCC
system 10, the grey water treatment system 48 may be employed in other types of
gasification systems. For example, the grey water treatment system 48 may be part of
a separate gasification system 12 that may provide sweetened syngas 56 to a chemical
plant for chemical production.
FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the grey water treatment
system 48 of FIG. 1. The grey water treatment system 48 includes a pretreatment
system 88 that receives the grey water blowdown 46 from the black water processing
system 42 (FIG. 1). Within the pretreatment system 88, the grey water blowdown 46
may be treated to remove trace metals and scaling components that may cause scaling
in downstream equipment. For example, the pretreatment system 88 may remove
components such as silica, calcium, magnesium, aluminum, antimony, arsenic,
cadmium, calcium, iron, manganese, and mercury, among others. According to
certain embodiments, the pretreatment system 88 may include equipment such as
reactors, clarifiers, and filters. The pretreatment system 88 also may include other
equipment for preparing the grey water blowdown 46 for biological treatment. For
example, the pretreatment system 88 may include one or more strippers for removing
ammonia to concentrations amenable to biological treatment.
The pretreatment system 88 may produce pretreated grey water 90 that may be
directed to a biotreatment system 92 that uses a biological treatment process to
chemically reduce and precipitate target components from the grey water. In
particular, the biotreatment system 92 may employ specially designed mixtures of
naturally occurring microbes to chemically reduce and precipitate the target
components. Rather than organic components, the target components may include
metals, metalloids, and/or inorganic nonmetallic components. The biotreatment
system 92 also may employ the naturally occurring microbes to convert the target
components into chemical components that may be discharged as a gas. For example,
the microbes may convert nitrates into nitrogen gas.
The biotreatment system 92 also may include other equipment for preparing the
pretreated grey water 90 for the biological reduction and precipitation process. For
example, the biotreatment system 92 may include one or more oxidation reactors that
oxidize components, such as selenium species to prepare them for the biological
reduction. Within the biological reduction and precipitation biotreatment system 92,
components, such as selenium, arsenic, mercury, molybdenum, nitrates, and
vanadium may be removed to produce biotreated grey water 94.
The biotreated grey water 94 may be directed to a post-treatment system 96. The
post-treatment system 96 may include one or more membrane bioreactors for
removing organic components from the biotreated grey water 94. According to
certain embodiments, the membrane bioreactors may remove organic components
provided as nutrients for the microbes in the biotreatment system 92. The posttreatment
system 96 also may include equipment such as reverse osmosis and ion
exchange equipment designed to further lower the levels of the target components
and/or to remove other undesirable components from the biotreated grey water 94. A
treated discharge 50 may exit the post-treatment system 96 and may be sent to deep
well injection, or to an existing water source through an outfall, depending on the
components present in the treated discharge 50. Further, in other embodiments, the
treated discharge 50 may be combined with another stream, for example, a chemical
processing stream in a polymer plant, to undergo further treatment.
FIG. 3 is a more detailed schematic flow diagram of the grey water treatment system
48. The grey water 46 may enter the pretreatment system 88 through an equalization
system 98. The equalization system 98 may include one or more equalization tanks
that provide steady state flow of a grey water feed stream 100 to a reaction system
102. The equalization tanks also may provide a collection point for recycle flows
from downstream equipment while allowing the flow of the grey water feed stream
100 to be regulated. Further, if needed, chemicals may be provided to the
equalization tanks to adjust the pH of the grey water feed stream 100.
The grey water feed stream 100 from the equalization system 98 may be provided to
the reaction system 102 for removal of metals and/or scaling components. In
particular, the reaction system 102 may include one or more chemical reactors 103
that react chemicals 104 with the grey water feed stream 100 to precipitate metals
and/or scaling components. According to certain embodiments, the reaction system
102 may include three reactors 103 in series, each with top-mounted agitators
designed to re-suspend solids. However, in other embodiments any suitable type
and/or number of reactors 103 may be included in series and/or in parallel.
In embodiments employing three reactors 103, the reaction system 102 may include a
first reactor 103A where the grey water feed stream 100 may undergo warm lime
softening. In particular, hydrated limes may be added as chemicals 104 to the reactor
to precipitate noncarbonate hardness components (i.e. sulfates and chloride salts).
Further, heat may be provided to decrease the solubility of components such as
calcium, magnesium, and silica. Sodium hydroxide and magnesium hydroxide also
may be added to the first reactor to reduce dissolved silica. For example, silica may
react with magnesium hydroxide to aid in the removal of silica in downstream
reactors 103B and 103C.
From the first reactor 103A, the grey water may enter a second reactor 103B where
further chemicals 104 may be added to further reduce the hardness to low
concentrations, to reduce the potential for magnesium and calcium scale formation,
and to precipitate heavy metal sulfides. For example, sodium carbonate may be added
to prevent the formation of magnesium sulfate and calcium sulfate. Sodium
bisulphate also may be added to form heavy metal sulfides, which may be precipitated
and removed during a subsequent clarification step. Further, lime and/or magnesium
may be added to remove additional hardness and silica.
From the second reactor 103B, the grey water may flow to a third reactor 103C where
additional chemicals 104 may be added to remove additional hardness and heavy
metals. For example, a solution of a precipitating agent, such as MetClear™,
commercially available from General Electric Water and Process Technologies of
Trevose, Pennsylvania, may be added to precipitate mercury sulfide particles. Ferric
chloride also may be added to co-precipitate with calcium hydroxide and magnesium
hydroxide. Further, the ferric chloride may act as a coagulant and may aid in settling
of the precipitated particles. Further, coagulation may assist in the formation of larger
particles through flocculation. The third reactor 103C also may provide additional
residence time for soda ash softening and heavy metal polishing.
From the reaction system 102, a feed stream 106 may be directed to a clarification
system 108 where the precipitated solids may be removed. The clarification system
108 may include distribution equipment, such as a splitter box, that separate the flow
equally among several clarifiers included within the clarification system 108.
Polymer 110 may be added to the splitter box to aid in the separation of solids in the
clarifiers. According to certain embodiments, the clarification system 108 may
include two solid contact clarifiers that soften the grey water by settling precipitants
formed in the reaction system 102. Within the clarifiers, a sludge blanket may be
formed that allows for additional coagulation of the solid particles. In certain
embodiments, the clarifiers may include a bottoms rake that provides motion for
flocculation. Further, the clarifiers may provide additional residence time for the
separation of metal hydroxides and metal sulfides.
Solids 112 concentrated in the clarification system 108 may be directed to a sludge
handling system 114 where the solids 112 may be dewatered. The sludge handling
system 114 may include equipment, such as a thickener, where the solids may be
further concentrated before being fed to filter presses included within the sludge
handling system 114. According to certain embodiments, the thickener may be a
metal sludge thickener that provides additional settling time. In certain embodiments,
polymer may be added to the sludge handling system 114 to chemically condition the
solids for the subsequent pressure filtration.
From the thickener, the solids 112 may be directed to filter presses, such as fixed
volume, recessed plate filter presses, where the solids 112 may undergo pressure
filtration. According to certain embodiments, the solids 112 may be pressurized for a
period of time, such as one to three hours, to dewater the solids 112. The filter
presses may reduce the volume of the sludge by removing liquid 116 that may be
returned to the reaction system 102. The remaining solids may be discharged from
the sludge handling system 114 as sludge 118.
A grey water feed stream 120 from the clarification system 108 may be directed to a
filtration system 122 for further removal of the suspended solids formed in the
reaction system 102 and the clarification system 108. The filtration system 122 may
include one or more multimedia pressure filters that remove suspended particulates as
the grey water flows through a filter bed of granular or compressible filter media. The
removal of the particulates in the filtration system 122 may impede plugging of
downstream components, such as sieve trays included within a downstream stripper.
Hydrochloric acid 124 may be added to the filtration system 122 to prevent scaling.
According to certain embodiments, the filtration system 122 may include down flow
filtration units housing multimedia filters (MMF) that contain multiple layers to
enhance the capture of particulates. For example, the filtration units may include four
layers of filter media with a gravel drain bed underneath where each layer picks up
smaller particles than the preceding layer. According to certain embodiments, the
layers may include an anthracite layer, a quartz layer, a sand layer, and a garnet layer
disposed over a gravel drain bed layer. The filtration system 122 may produce
filtered grey water 126 that enters a stripping system 128. Further, in certain
embodiments, a portion of the filtered grey water 126 may be returned to the filtration
system 122 and used as backwash to clean the filters. The spent backwash 127 may
be returned to the equalization system 98 for further separation.
Within the stripping system 128, ammonia may be removed from the filtered grey
water 126 to produce the pretreated grey water 90 that enters the biotreatment system
92. According to certain embodiments, the stripping system 128 may include a tray
column ammonia stripper that removes ammonia 132 as a gas. Steam 130 may be
provided to heat the grey water 90 and provide the driving force for vaporization and
separation of the ammonia from the filtered grey water 126. The ammonia 132 may
be sent to a sulfur recovery unit within the gas cooling and treatment system 34 (FIG.
1). Condensed steam 134 may exit the stripping system, and, in certain embodiments,
may be provided to the sludge handling system 114 for filter press cake washing. The
The pretreated grey water 90 from the pretreatment system 88 may enter the
biotreatment system 92 where target components may undergo a valence reduction
within bioreactors to allow subsequent precipitation of the target components. In
particular, the pretreated grey water 90 may exit the stripping system 128 and may be
sent to an oxidation system 138 where certain components, such as selenium, may be
oxidized so that they may be removed in the biotreatment process. According to
certain embodiments, the oxidation system 138 may include one or more oxidation
reactors where chemicals 140, such as hypochlorite, chlorine dioxide, permanganate,
and/or peroxide may be added to oxidize the selenium and produce an oxidized feed
stream 142. For example, selenium existing in the grey water as selenocyanate ions
may be oxidized to selenate or selenite for removal in the biotreatment process.
The oxidized feed stream 142 may then be provided to the reduction and precipitation
biotreatment system 144. Within the reduction and precipitation biotreatment system
144, bioreactors seeded with naturally occurring microbial cultures, such as
pseudomonas sp., may be used to remove target inorganic, metallic, and/or metalloid
components such as selenium, nitrates, selenium, arsenic, mercury, molybdenum, and
vanadium, among others. According to certain embodiments, the reduction and
precipitation biotreatment system 144 may include eight bioreactor trains, each with
two bioreactor cells. Each bioreactor cell may include a mixture of microbes residing
on a support media, such as granular activated carbon. The bioreactor cells may
operate in a down flow mode where feed is introduced at the top of the cell through a
distribution system and withdrawn through the bottom of the cell. The reduction and
precipitation biotreatment system 144 also may include one or more heat exchangers
that may heat the feed stream 142 prior to transmitting the feed stream to each
bioreactor cell. According to certain embodiments, the reduction and precipitation
biotreatment system 144 may be an ABMet® advanced biological metals removal
process, commercially available from General Electric Water and Process
Technologies.
Within the reduction and precipitation biotreatment system 144, the naturally
occurring microbes may chemically reduce and precipitate the target components,
which may be inorganic, metallic, and/or metalloid components. In other words, the
reduction and precipitation biotreatment system 144 may not use the microbes to
remove organic components, and instead may use the microbes to remove inorganic,
metallic, and/or metalloid components. The microbes may be especially developed
mixtures designed to reduce and precipitate the target components. Further, the
microbes may convert certain components, such as nitrates, into other components,
such as nitrogen, that may be released as a gas. Nutrients 146 may be provided to the
reduction and precipitation biotreatment system 144 to provide a carbon food source
for the microbes. According to certain embodiments, the nutrients 146 may be
provided as a solution that is injected into the feed stream for each bioreactor cell.
Formates within the grey water may act as a carbon food source for the microbes in
addition to the nutrients 146 provided to the reduction and precipitation biotreatment
system 144.
The target components may be reduced and precipitated as biosolids 148 within the
reduction and precipitation biotreatment system 144. For example, selenium
contained in selenite or selenate may be reduced and precipitated as elemental
selenium. In another example, arsenic may be reduced and precipitated as arsenic
sulfide. To remove the biosolids 148, the reduction and precipitation biotreatment
system 144 may be flushed and/or degassed. Degassing may release the target
components converted to gases, such as nitrogen gas, while flushing may release the
accumulated biomass and suspended solids within the reduction and precipitation
biotreatment system 144. The released biosolids 148 may be directed to a biosludge
handling system 150 that may be part of the post-treatment system 96.
The biotreated grey water 94 from the reduction and precipitation biotreatment system
144 may enter the post-treatment system 96. The post-treatment system 96 may
further treat the biotreated grey water 94 to removed additional components from the
grey water to allow the grey water to be sent to deep well injection, discharged to
other streams, or discharged through an outfall in compliance with environmental
regulations.
The post-treatment system 96 may include a membrane bioreactor system 152 that
removes organics, total suspended solids (TSS), potential residual ammonia, and
heavy metals, such as iron and manganese. According to certain embodiments, the
membrane bioreactor system 152 may be a ZeeWeed membrane bioreactor (MBR),
commercially available from the General Electric Company. The membrane
bioreactor system 152 includes a bioreactor integrated with a membrane filtration
unit. The bioreactor may be a suspended growth reactor that includes a pre-anoxic
portion and an aerobic portion for degrading organic content within the grey water.
The membrane filtration unit may include a reinforced hollow fiber membrane that
separates the liquid and solid components. The membrane bioreactor system 152 may
be continuously aerated with oxygen 154 using coarse or fine bubble diffusers and
blowers for membrane scouring and/or to maintain appropriate oxygen levels.
The biosolids 156 from the membrane bioreactor system 152 may be directed to a
biosludge handling system 150 for dewatering. A polymer may be added to the
biosludge handling system 150 to chemically condition the biosolids 156 for pressure
filtration within the biosludge handling system 150. According to certain
embodiments, the biosludge handling system 150 may include a belt press filtration
system. Within the biosludge handling system 150, the biosolids 156 may flow
through a gravity drainage section where the biosolids 156 may thicken. After
thickening, the biosolids 156 may flow to shear and compression sections of the belt
press filtration system where the biosolids 156 may be compressed between two
opposing porous cloths. Further, high-pressure compression may be used by passing
the belt containing the biosolids 156 through two rollers. The biosludge handling
system 150 may produce sludge 160 that may be scrapped from the belts by blades
and sent to offsite disposal. Liquid 158 removed from the biosolids 156 may be
recycled to the reduction and precipitation biotreatment system 144 for further
treatment.
The grey water feed stream 162 exiting the membrane bioreactor system 152 may be
directed to an optional additional processing system 164 where additional components
may be removed from the grey water feed stream 162 to produce the treated discharge
50. According to certain embodiments, the additional processing system 164 may
include a reverse osmosis system that further removes heavy metals. The additional
processing system 164 also may include ion exchange systems that use softeners to
remove heavy metals. Further, in certain embodiments, the additional processing
system 164 may include other systems, such as a carbon adsorption system for
mercury removal, a weak acid cation (WAC) system for removing hardness and
heavy metals, a forced draft decarbonator (FDD) for removing carbon dioxide, or
sodium cycle softeners, among others. However, in other embodiments, no additional
processing may be employed and the grey water feed stream 162 may represent the
treated discharge 50 that exits the grey water treatment system 48.
The treated discharge 50 may exit the grey water treatment system 48 and may be
discharged through an outfall into an existing body of water in compliance with
environmental regulations. In other embodiments, the treated discharge 50 may be
sent to deep well injection or may be blended with another stream, for example, a
wastewater stream in a polymer facility. Further, in some embodiments, a portion or
all of the treated discharge 50 may be used as a make-up water to produce the fuel
slurry 20 that is sent to the gasification and scrubbing system 24 (FIG. 1).
This written description uses examples to disclose the invention, including the best
mode, and also to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the invention,
including making and using any devices or systems and performing any incorporated
methods. The patentable scope of the invention is defined by the claims, and may
include other examples that occur to those skilled in the art. Such other examples are
intended to be within the scope of the claims if they have structural elements that do
not differ from the literal language of the claims, or if they include equivalent
structural elements with insubstantial differences from the literal language of the
claims.

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:
1. A grey water treatment system, comprising:
an oxidation reactor configured to oxidize grey water; and
a biological reduction and precipitation biotreatment system comprising microbes
configured to remove one or more target components from oxidized grey water.
2 . The grey water treatment system of claim 1, wherein the microbes are
configured to chemically reduce and precipitate the one or more target components.
3 . The grey water treatment system of claim 1, wherein the one or more target
components comprise selenium.
4 . The grey water treatment system of claim 1, wherein the one or more target
components comprise at least one of selenium, arsenic, mercury, molybdenum,
nitrate, and vanadium.
5 . The grey water treatment system of claim 1, wherein the microbes are
configured to convert nitrate into nitrogen gas.
6 . The grey water treatment system of claim 1, wherein the biological reduction
and precipitation biotreatment system comprises bioreactor cells containing the
microbes on granular carbon.
7 . The grey water treatment system of claim 1, wherein the oxidation reactor is
configured to oxidize selenium within the grey water.
8 . A grey water treatment system, comprising:
an oxidation reactor configured to oxidize selenium species within grey water; and
a biological reduction and precipitation biotreatment system comprising microbes
configured to chemically reduce and precipitate oxidized selenium species from the
grey water.
9 . The grey water treatment system of claim 8, wherein the biological reduction
and precipitation biotreatment system comprises a plurality of bioreactor cells
containing the microbes residing on granular carbon.
10. The grey water treatment system of claim 9, wherein the biological reduction
and precipitation biotreatment system comprises a plurality of bioreactor trains, each
with two bioreactor cells of the plurality of bioreactor cells.
11. The grey water treatment system of claim 8, wherein the microbes are
configured to convert nitrate into nitrogen gas.
12. The grey water treatment system of claim 8, wherein the microbes are
configured to chemically reduce and precipitate arsenic as arsenic sulfide.
13. The grey water treatment system of claim 8, comprising a pretreatment system
disposed upstream of the oxidation reactor and configured to remove scaling
components from the grey water.
14. A grey water treatment system, comprising:
a pretreatment system configured to remove scaling components from grey water to
produce pretreated grey water; and
a biotreatment system configured to oxidize the pretreated grey water and to remove
one or more target components from oxidized pretreated grey water to produce
biotreated grey water.
15. The grey water treatment system of claim 14, wherein the pretreatment system
comprises one or more chemical reactors and one or more clarifiers configured to
soften the grey water.
16. The grey water treatment system of claim 14, wherein the pretreatment system
comprises one or more filtration systems configured to remove suspended solids from
the grey water.
17. The grey water treatment system of claim 14, wherein the pretreatment system
comprises a stripper configured to remove ammonia from the grey water.
18. The grey water treatment system of claim 14, comprising a membrane
biotreatment reactor configured to remove one or more organic components from the
biotreated grey water.
19. The grey water treatment system of claim 18, wherein the membrane
biotreatment reactor comprises a pre-anoxic reactor, an aerobic reactor, and a
filtration membrane.
20. The grey water treatment system of claim 14, wherein the grey water
treatment system is part of an integrated combined cycle system.