Individual treatment of hotel and restaurant waste water in rural areas

• Published in: Environmental technology 2012-03, Vol.33 (6), p.653-661
• Main Authors: Van Hulle, S. W.H, Ghyselbrecht, N, Vermeiren, T. J.L, Depuydt, V, Boeckaert, C
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activated sludge; Applied sciences; Belgium; Buffers; Business; business enterprises; Catering; Chemical engineering; Computer programs; Computer Simulation; computer software; Continental surface waters; Environmental Monitoring - methods; environmental technology; Exact sciences and technology; Freshwater; General purification processes; General treatment and storage processes; hotel and catering industry; Hotels; Hydrologic data; individual treatment of waste water; laws and regulations; Legislation; modelling; Models, Theoretical; Natural water pollution; Pollution; Purification; Quality assessment; Reactors; Receiving waters; Restaurants; Restaurants - statistics & numerical data; Rural areas; rural communities; Rural Population - statistics & numerical data; simulation; Software; Surface water; Waste treatment; Waste water; Wastes; Wastewater; Wastewater treatment; Wastewaters; Water discharge; Water Pollution - analysis; Water Pollution - statistics & numerical data; Water Purification - methods; Water Purification - statistics & numerical data; Water Quality; Water treatment; Water treatment and pollution
• ISSN: 1479-487X; 0959-3330; 1479-487X
• DOI: 10.1080/09593330.2011.587025

About 25 hotels, restaurants and pubs in the rural community Heuvelland are situated in the area designated for individual water treatment. In order to meet the legislation by the end of 2015, each business needs to install an individual waste water treatment system (IWTS). To study this situation, three catering businesses were selected for further research. The aim of the study was to quantify the effluent quality and to assess IWTS performance for these catering businesses.First of all, the influence of discharging untreated waste water on the receiving surface water was examined. The results showed a decrease in water quality after the discharge point at every business. With the collected data, simulations with the software WEST® were performed. With this software two types of IWTSs with different (buffer) volumes were modelled and tested for each catering business. The first type is a completely mixed activated sludge reactor and the second type is a submerged aerobic fixed-bed reactor. The results of these simulations demonstrate that purification with an IWTS is possible if the capacity is large enough and if an adequate buffer volume is installed and if regular maintenance is performed.