Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste ...

Waste Water Technology AWT
MODULAARE: Integrated Modules for Efficient
Wastewater Treatment, Solid Waste Disposal
and Regenerative Energy Recovery in Tourist
Resorts
Tourism is a rapidly growing sector and sustainability
in tourism requires an environmentally conscious management.
Particularly in arid provinces, large amounts
of water required for the irrigation may constitute a
problem. Preferred regions often include naturally vulnerable
areas in which hotels or holiday villages are
located far from central infrastructure, such as wastewater
treatment plants and landfills. The transport of
wastes to central systems is a costly process. On one
hand’s side, large amounts of wastewater and solid
waste are produced due to increased needs on holiday,
on the other side wastewater, even though polluted,
constitutes an important water resource and can be
reused if properly treated.
In this context, an innovative, decentralised and modular
concept for wastewater treatment, solid waste
disposal and energy production was developed.
The concept was applied within the framework of a
research project (MODULAARE) and conducted by a
consortium including University of Stuttgart. The emphasis
of the project was placed on the practical and
the economical feasibility of the concept. Thus for the
implementation of the project a Turkish tourist resort
connected to a municipal waste water treatment plant
has been selected as pilot hotel. A pilot plant combining
wastewater treatment and solid waste processing
were installed and operated. A simple laboratory was
established in the hotel grounds.
The modular pilot plant combined a membrane bioreactor
for wastewater recycling with a digester unit for
energy recovery out of organic waste from the kitchen
and green areas as well as the excess sludge of the
membrane bioreactor.
The wastewater module was constructed in a cargo
container in Germany and then transported to the hotel
at the beginning of the summer season 2005. The
process was based on a low loaded membrane bioreactor
consisting of several steps to remove nitrogen and
carbonaceous substances and ending with membrane
filtration. Wastewater produced in the hotel is collected
in a central shaft and only a small part of it is brought
to the plant (7 m³/d - 10 m³/d). After being stored in
a mass balancing tank, wastewater was pumped into a
primary sedimentation unit. This was followed by separate
anoxic and aerobic zones, interconnected by a
recirculation line. Treated wastewater was then permeated
through submerged ultrafiltration membranes
placed in the aerobic tank and stored in a separate
chamber connected to the irrigation pond.
Separate analyses of different wastewater streams
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