ACEC Awards Tighe & Bond for Plant Upgrade with Innovative Siemens BioMag® and CoMag® Water Treatment Systems


Alpharetta, GA –



• Tighe Bond receives ACEC Gold Award for its work with Siemens Water Technologies at Sturbridge, MA municipal wastewater plant

• Siemens BioMag and CoMag Systems, a cost-effective alternative to MBR and conventional media filtration, exceed all expectations for expanding treatment capacity and enhanced nutrient removal



The American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) of Massachusetts has awarded Tighe Bond its prestigious Gold Award for its work at the Town of Sturbridge, MA wastewater treatment plant using an innovative combination of Siemens Water Technologies BioMag® and CoMag® Systems.



The ACEC recognized the engineering firm for having demonstrated "the highest degree of merit, ingenuity, complexity and client satisfaction," according to Treatment Plant Operator Magazine. The implementation of Siemens BioMag and CoMag water treatment systems "increased wastewater treatment efficiency, improved water quality and reduced costs and overall environmental impact."



"We are honored to receive this professional recognition and to have exceeded, performance and compliance requirements for the Town while delivering the project substantially below the estimated cost of a conventional treatment system," said Ian Catlow, Tighe & Bond senior project manager. "The outcome is a result of a great collaboration between Tighe & Bond, the Town of Sturbridge and Siemens."



Sturbridge originally planned to install a membrane bioreactor (MBR) to meet the need for additional wastewater treatment capacity in a highly constricted footprint, coupled with tighter permit limits for biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total sus-pended solids (TSS), total nitrogen and phosphorus. However, after evaluating the high capital and operating costs of the MBR, the town and Tighe & Bond agreed to pilot test the Siemens BioMag System.  By using magnetite to ballast biological floc, allowing an increase in mixed liquor concentration as high as 12,000 mg/l, the BioMag system proved to be a cost-effective alternative to MBR technology while expanding capacity from 2.84 MLD (0.75 MGD) to 6.06 MLD (1.62 MGD). 



Next, to comply with anticipated lower phosphorus discharge limits and a desire for a reliable tertiary treatment process to follow the BioMag System, the Town and Tighe & Bond initially planned to expand its conventional media filtration system. Once again, after a demonstration proved that the installed cost of the larger sand filter would be greater than the smaller and higher performing performing CoMag System, the town chose the Siemens solution. Since implementing the CoMag System, the plant has experienced no loss of productivity due to clogging, plugging or backwashing and the Town received a process guarantee providing <0.05 mg/L of effluent phosphorus. 



For more information about Tighe & Bond's work for the Town of Sturbridge, read the complete case study. To learn more about the BioMag and CoMag Systems and other proven and innovative solutions, visit Siemens Water Technologies at Water Environmental Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) booth 1431 Oct. 7-9 in the McCormick Convention Center in Chicago and attend the technical session "The Impact of Magnetite Ballast on Oxygen Transfer and Alpha" presented by Siemens Senior Process Engineer Mike Doyle on 8:30-10:00 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 9 in room S402b.  For immediate BioMag and CoMag Systems product queries, contact Sales Director Betty-Ann Curtis at betty-ann.curtis@siemens.com or call (262) 521-8408.

Contact This Company

All Topics