Product Description
Candy Carbon® (CC) is an external organic carbon (EOC) product used by wastewater facilities to enhance biological processes and increase organic carbon when and where needed. This product may promote a diverse bacterial population for enhanced denitrification and balancing bacterial community dynamics in diluted systems.
Applications
Enhanced denitrification: Van Trump et al. 2011, identifies the role of humic acid in stimulating denitrification processes in saturated soil systems. Furthermore, this study indicates that humic acid promotes the development of a bacterial community enriched with a diverse population of denitrifying genera.1 Because denitrifying bacteria in wastewater systems are derived from soils and sediments of freshwater lakes and streams, the results of Van Trump’s study may be extended to wastewater treatment.
Candy Carbon® contains natural humic material which, like humic acids in soils, may promote a more diverse and stable community of denitrifying bacteria in wastewater than the simple organic carbon substrates frequently used. Because of these multifunctional capabilities of CC, it takes a lot less CC to accomplish the same result as products typically dosed on COD content only.
Balancing F:M ratios (Food to Microorganism (Mass)): Wastewater treatment plants with low F:M ratios (facility specific) can benefit from additions of organic carbon. When influent BOD/COD is too low to support the biomass, the wastewater organisms begin to function sluggishly and will eventually die.
Dying activated sludge does not settle well and can cause treatment issues. Influent BOD may drop off when, the service area population is intermittent (resorts), there is high infiltration and inflow (I&I), and/or the wastewater treatment facility is over-designed for the current population or use. In these situations, the influent can be supplemented with external organic carbon to keep the biomass alive and active until the influent BOD is back to normal ranges.
Product Benefits
Reduced Application Rate: Compared to other organic carbon products, Candy
Carbon® has been applied at much lower dosing rates to achieve desired treatment results. An activated sludge facility in Arizona implemented Candy Carbon® to stabilize F:M in their system after high infiltration and inflow events.
The plant manager was pleased to report, “In the past I used [an alternate EOC supplement] at a rate 0.9-1.5 GPH. Since switching to Candy Carbon®, I have my feed pump on its lowest setting 4.25 GPD.”
Safe and Environmentally Friendly
Candy Carbon® is safe for aquatic organisms, storage, and operator handling. Product contents are never flammable or corrosive like alternative EOC supplements. Methanol is widely used as an EOC source but is flammable and requires special handling and
storage. Additionally, potential issues with acetic acid products include stowing container and wastewater plant mechanical component corrosion. Other EOC supplements may be synthetic chemical that could cause operational challenges like clogged membrane filters.
BioLynceus® Candy Carbon® is an effective external organic carbon source.
1 Van Trump, JI., Wrighton, KC., Thrash, JC., Weber, KA., Andersen, GL., Coates, JD. (2011). Humic acid-oxidizing, nitrate-reducing bacteria in agricultural soils. Mbio 2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21750120