Patapsco Oxygen Reactor Renovations

 

The Baltimore City Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant is an 87.5 mgd wastewater treatment plant serving Baltimore City and Baltimore County.  This state-of-the-art facility uses a high purity oxygen activated sludge process where oxygen is fed into covered biological reactors to obtain a high degree of treatment efficiency at reduced capital and operating costs.  JMT was selected to design the renovation of the oxygen reactors, originally constructed in the late 1970's.  JMT's tasks included:

  • Inspection, evaluation, and identification of the rehabilitation needs and the design, of mechanical, structural, electrical, and instrumentation/control renovations.
  • Modifications to the flow metering and control system (including new magnetic flow meters and control valves).
  • JMT was responsible for the investigation and design of modifications to the system's aerators and aerator supports, distributed control system, motor control centers and a new dewatering pumping system.  An innovative foam collection and pumping system was designed to handle periodic severe foaming episodes.The design also included inspection of the extent of concrete surface and subsurface damage in two of the reactors and design of a cathodic protection and coating system to prevent further deterioration, and renovations and enhancements to the following components:
  • Renovation and design of influent and RAS metering
  • Renovation and design of instrumentation/control systems
  • Aerator rehabilitation and aeration capacity enhancements
  • Reactor access ramp
  • Replacement of effluent weirs
  • Improvements to the head space CO2 removal system
  • Rehabilitation of influent sluice gate activators and controls
  • Design of a foam removal system
  • Improvements to reactor dewatering pumps
  • Design of improvements to the reactor flushing water and foam spray systems
  • Design of systems for peak flow control
  • Renovations to electrical distribution and HVAC systems
  • Design of lighting protection systems
  • JMT is providing complete engineering services during construction.