November 2, 2009
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Pipeline Company (BTC) has signed an agreement with CTG PlanetTEK – an international provider of wastewater treatment plants and a subsidiary of CTG, for the deployment of a sewage treatment plants on the Baku-Tiblisi-Ceyhan Crude Oil Pipeline Pumping Station at Kahramanmaras, Turkey. The pipeline is a 1,768 km long crude oil pipeline running from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Four of the pumping stations are located in Turkey.
BTC is a world-class project delivering one million barrels per day to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. British Petroleum’s involvement in this project ensures significant benefits to the region. By avoiding the Turkish Straits, the BTC pipeline helps relieve oil-related traffic and associated environmental risks, while creating substantial revenues for the transit countries.
BTC, working within the framework of British Petroleum’s strict environmental policies, realized the necessity for wastewater treatment plants to serve the personnel working at pumping stations. The Kahramanmaraş station is located at an altitude of approx. 1.500 m and undergoes severe winter conditions with temperatures as low as -28°C.
The CTG’s PlanetDISK® RBC easily complied with the rigid environmental standards set by British Petroleum and BTC and this was an easy choice for the pipeline’s owners.
PlanetDISK RBC is a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment unit based on proven Rotating Biological Contactor (RBC) technology. Mounted on a stainless steel shaft rotating at speeds of less than 4 RPM, the PlanetDISK RBC was deployed using a is a compact, container-based fixed film reactor system consisting of circular disks made of GPR (Glassfiber Reinforced Polyester). In order to prevent freezing, wastewater is heated via electrical heaters.
With approximately 40% of the disks immersed in wastewater during rotation, biomass on disks is exposed to oxygen, allowing organisms to multiply. The dissolved oxygen and organic materials in the wastewater diffuse into the biomass to be metabolized. Sludge is removed using a lamella type settler and a vacuum truck removes the waste monthly. The effluent from the lamella separator is further filtered via a sand filter and disinfected via a UV lamp.
The RBC technology is modular, where one unit has a capacity of 20 m3/day and serves around 100 employees at the station. The basic advantage of this technology is the advanced fixed film biological process based on attached growth culture of biomass. This technology both reduces the reactor volume as well as the retention time. It consumes less energy compared to conventional activated sludge process without generating any noise. Another superior advantage is that the minimum service requirement making the operator’s life easier at elevations of 1,500m.