Design of sewage treatment plants for high-density urban reclamation land

Abstract

The success of any coastal reclamation project depends strongly on a sound planning and design practices. Due to the land use limitations, sewage treatment plant (STP) of the reclamation land should be fully studied to save land and reduce its adverse effects on the environment. This research focuses on the selection of biological treatment process for a novel STP, as various pollutants of the sewage can be effectively removed via the biological process. The paper presents a design of the STP implemented in Johor as an example, to achieve the goal of ‘zero discharge’ in the reclaimed wetland. The domestic sewage is treated, recycled and reused in the artificial wetland as an ecological green water to achieve Class IIB standard (effluent quality). The novel STP design comprised of the Immobilized Aerobic Biofilm (BioAX) and Mass Bio System (MBS) was compared against the conventional Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) process. Combination BioAX + MBS process is advantageous due to significantly less land needed, lower power consumption and lower sludge generation. The system was demonstrated as a viable process to treat the sewage wastewater in the reclamation land to meet Class IIB discharge at a lower environmental footprint, saving up to 50 % of the area.