AWS Base

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Wastewater from the home flows into the inlet pipe, down through the inlet tee and into the first compartment of the tank. The first compartment functions as a conventional septic tank and solids settle to the bottom and form a sludge layer, and fats, oils and grease (FOG) float to the surface and form a scum layer.

Settled and skimmed wastewater from the first compartment pass through a conventional septic tank effluent filter and into the second compartment which is designed as an upflow anaerobic sludge blanket (UASB) reactor.

The UASB is a simple anaerobic treatment process (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UASB). which was developed by Dr. Gatze Lettinga and colleagues in the late 1970's at the Wageningen University (The Netherlands). You can learn more at http://www.uasb.org/discover/agsb.htm#uasb.

In summary, the wastewater from the first compartment flows through the distribution piping in the second UASB compartment up through the basin. Over time, the anaerobic treatment process forms sludge granules around the distribution pipe which act as a filter and attached growth media to treat the wastewater as it passes through.

After the water is treated in the UASB basin, it flows through a proprietary outlet filter developed by Advanced Wastewater Systems. The outlet filter has an open bottom and holes along a portion of its midsection that allow the water into the filter. The interior of the filter is filled with reticulated foam, a soft compressible material with large surface area. The foam acts as an additional attached growth media for the formation of a biofilm that treats the wastewater as it passes through the media. Over time the media becomes filled with biomass and is cleaned by manually compressing the foam and squeezing the biomass out the bottom of the filter and back into the UASB basin. The filter cleaning is done from outside the tank by using a simple hand tool to push down the filter top plate and compress the foam media. This proprietary outlet filter is currently patent pending.

Advanced Wastewater Systems (AWS) has develped a pilot Super Septic Tank and installed it at a municipal wastewater treatment plant in Indiana along with a conventional two compartment septic tank. AWS monitored the raw wastewater into both the Super Septic Tank and the conventional septic tank over a period of time and came up with the following results: