MBBR & IFAS

Wastewater treatment, intensified.

Bioports is MBBR & IFAS, evolved.

The culmination of premium products and process engineering.

Nexom is the exclusive source for the BioPorts™ moving bed biofilm reactor (MBBR) or integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS). BioPorts combines high-quality media, retention screens, and fixed grid products with Nexom’s unmatched process expertise to create an industry leading technology. Reliability, simplicity, and intensified treatment have never been more available than now.

Why do you need a BioPorts system? BioPorts technology installed at your plant allows you to:

  • achieve exactly the amount of BOD roughing/removal/polishing you need.

  • make more use of less space for nitrification (ammonia removal) processes, even at <5°C.

  • customize biological treatment for your effluent objectives and project specific drivers, whether it be reduced footprint or low energy and chemical requirements, or both.
  • upgrade your existing infrastructure, including lagoons, with premium processes that bring reliability and simplicity to the industry’s smallest footprint treatment process.

MBBR & IFAS processes for cleaner water

Our proven products ensure your system complies with regulations.

Get results for your plant with

our Moving media systems.

Nexom works hard every day to push the limits of technology while maintaining high-quality products that are sure to last. Don’t know what you need? Our MBBR experts are happy to help you diagnose your requirements and design a solution to fit your specific needs. Get your project moving forward today!

BioPorts™ Moving Bed Biofilm Reactor (MBBR)

BioPorts™ Integrated Fixed-film Activated Sludge (IFAS)

Installation & Maintenance

With SiteWorks, building or servicing your MBBR or IFAS system is easy.

 

TRUST YOUR MBBR or IFAS system TO OUR SITEWORKS PROFESSIONALS.

SiteWorks is the team that considers once-in-a-lifetime maintenance or upgrades “routine.”

Across North America, SiteWorks has developed a reputation for being the best wastewater treatment service and installation team in the business. Leave your install and servicing to the crews that work on these systems every day!

Need aftermarket parts?

Very few of the components of a BioPorts system could be considered “wear parts” or consumable; that said, every wastewater treatment facility needs parts of some kind at one time or another.

For all your treatment facility’s aftermarket parts needs, Aftermarket Parts is the place to get quick turnaround, friendly service, and exactly the part you need.

From High Strength to highly variable BOD Removal

When your BOD varies by degrees of magnitude, you need a technology that can respond in kind.

 

When you need to reduce organic loading fast…

BioPorts is the solution to your high strength and/or highly variable treatment needs.

As microorganisms break down organic matter (like human waste and food waste), they use up oxygen in the water; hence the acronym Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). The danger is, if BOD is discharged into the environment untreated, oxygen depletion by naturally occuring microorganisms in the receiving body of water could result in fish kills.

Removing BOD, then, is a matter of:

  • Most efficiently getting oxygen to the bacteria already in your plant, and/or
  • Most effectively keeping that bacteria in your reactor

…so that you can remove the BOD before it hits the environment.

Ideally suited to treat high-strength or highly-variable BOD loading, the BioPorts MBBR or IFAS system has minimal footprint and energy requirements. In BioPorts processes, moving media with huge surface area-to-volume ratios are retained in the basin, providing the perfect home for BOD-removing heterotrophic bacteria to grow. This has two benefits:

  • rather than wasting suspended bacteria out the back of your reactor, your treatment biomass is retained on the media so you’re best prepared for peak loading events.
  • by using high-performance, low-maintenance EDI fixed grid aeration to mix the media, the system remains simple to operate while approaching oxygen-transfer efficiencies similar to fine-bubble diffusers.

The combined effect is that BioPorts can handle huge or variable BOD loading. This is good news for industrial dischargers with BOD-intensive wastewater facing severe surcharges from the receiving plant, or even the receiving plants themselves that take on high-strength and intermittent wastewater from those industrial clients and needing a path back to consistent compliance.

Reduce BOD simply and in a small footprint using a post-lagoon BioPorts™ MBBR.

BioPorts uses our proprietary HDPE media and a high-efficiency aerated environment to create an easy-to-run BOD-consuming powerhouse.

Most efficiently getting oxygen to the microorganisms already in your plant

Aerating with EDI’s FlexAir® fine-bubble aeration is a common way to remove BOD more efficiently. Proper aeration can help with both BOD because fine bubbles of <2mm in diameter rise more slowly and create a huge amount of surface area between the air and water, allowing oxygen to dissolve at all levels of the basin’s water column.

However, introducing BioPorts media changes the equation. BioPorts media both physically impedes the ability of bubbles to rise and breaks larger bubbles into smaller ones. This increases both the contact time and surface area of the supplied air, enabling Nexom’s process engineers to achieve oxygen transfer efficiencies comparable to fine-bubble aeration while using membrane-free diffused aeration. These diffusers are not only known for their low operations & maintenance requirements, but they also provide mixing energy that helps ensure the BioPorts media circulates throughout the basin. In doing so, the system bring the microorganisms the BioPorts media carry into contact with the contaminants they’re there to consume.

Achieving ammonia compliance, even in the cold.

Ammonia Removal (aka "Nitrification") Intensification in MBBRs and IFAS.

 

Elevated Ammonia is one of the most common sources of effluent toxicity…

…but removing it may be easier than you think, even as your plant’s loading rises.

The process of removing ammonia—also called nitrification—is performed by microorganisms already found in wastewater, and so removing all the ammonia is typically a matter of making your plant a welcome home for it.

Those microorganisms typically need four things:
  • Access to oxygen
  • Warm water (preferably warmer than 5ºC, or 41ºF)
  • Minimal competition from BOD-consuming microorganisms (preferably BOD is <25 mg/L)

Fortunately, many plants do a pretty good job of all three, particularly when BOD levels are low. But if you’re wondering every month whether you’ll meet your ammonia limits, chances are you need to get your system tuned up.

In conventional activated sludge systems, the nitrifying microorganisms will attach to biological flocs comprising a highly diverse biological community. Unfortunately, that diversity can lead to stiff competition when oxygen or other substrates are limiting, and the weaker nitrifying microorganisms can suffer as a result. In extreme cases, the nitrifying microorganisms can be starved and completely washed out of the system, leaving you with high effluent ammonia that exceed effluent objectives.

Luckily, BioPorts media provides a safe haven for even the most sensitive nitrifying microorganisms. With hundreds of m²/m³ (ft²/ft³) of media volume, BioPorts media ensures that nitrifiers have a place to grow and thrive, isolated from competition for substrates.

Reduce ammonia simply and in a small footprint using a BioPorts™ MBBR or IFAS upgrade.

BioPorts uses our proprietary HDPE media and a high-efficiency aerated environment to create an easy-to-run ammonia-consuming powerhouse.

Get your plant ready for ammonia compliance

Our engineers are leading experts in optimizing WWTPs of all kinds for nitrification.

Absarokee, MT

Fully utilizing a combination of Nexom’s expert technologies for BOD reduction and cold-water nitrification

read more
Learn more:

Why can the same amount of ammonia be toxic one day and harmless the next?

Adapted from Lagoons and WSER Limits. Hildebrand and Wiebe, 2016.

“Total Ammonia-Nitrogen”: when testing for ammonia in wastewater, results are usually presented as this single entity. But it is better understood as the combination of ammonium (NH₄⁺) and un-ionized ammonia (NH₃), the latter of which is dramatically more toxic.

How toxic? Saskatchewan’s Water Security Agency tested various municipalities’ effluent for acute toxicity in an attempt to determine what the actual ammonia levels would be to ensure compliance with Canada’s Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations’ required non-toxicity. They found that, in some cases, wastewater treatment facilities would have had to reduce un-ionized ammonia (NH₃) to 0.1 mg/L to pass the non-toxicity test. (Thirunavukkarasu, 2014)

In a cruel twist to make life difficult for wastewater operators, the proportion of TAN that presents as un-ionized ammonia is dependent on—and positively correlated with—two factors, temperature and pH:

  • Its relationship with temperature is more gradual; e.g. with TAN of 10 mg/L at a pH of 7.5, an increase from 15°C to 20°C only increase un-ionized ammonia from 0.0859 to 0.124, an increase of only 44%.
  • However, a nominally-small increase in pH can have a more substantial impact: e.g. with a TAN of 10 mg/L at 15°C, increasing pH from 7.5 to 8.5 increases NH₃ content from 0.0859 to 0.797 mg/L, almost a tenfold increase. (Emerson, 1975)

Enhanced biological phosphorus removal

Optimizing your IFAS to maximize biological phosphorus uptake.

 

Biological phosphorus removal is more attainable than ever.

Thanks to the challenges of the phosphorus cycle, removing phosphorus biologically has long been an impossible dream for many wastewater treatment facilities. But with the intensified BioPorts IFAS process, biological phosphorus removal is possible.

The process hinges on BioPorts IFAS’ ability to grow biomass at an incredible rate in its intensified, surface-area rich environs, resulting in substantial phosphorus uptake.

The process thus is no longer reliant on chemical dosing, phosphorus remains bioavailable, and no metal phosphate sludge is produced.

Reduce phosphorus simply using a BioPorts™ IFAS upgrade.

BioPorts makes biological phosphorus removal accessible using its easy-to-run IFAS systems.

Get your plant ready for phosphorus compliance

Our engineers are leading experts in optimizing WWTPs of all kinds for nutrient removal.

Learn more:

What levels of phosphorus removal are possible using various technologies?

For low phosphorus concentrations of 0.1 mg/L and above: Depending on your wastewater treatment facility, our engineers may recommend:

For ultra-low phosphorus concentrations of 0.09 mg/L and below: There is no comparing the ability of Blue PRO reactive filtration to polish phosphorus to meet ultra-low limits as low as 20 μg/L.

 

Customizable and Intensified Biological Nutrient Removal

More than industry buzzwords, intensification and nutrient removal (including phosphorus!) are what MBBR and IFAS processes are built for.

 

Providing practical BNR to real world treatment facilities.

When your plant was designed, it likely wasn’t being asked to handle as much as it is now. Between growing loads and flows, removing more nutrients such as nitrogen to phosphorus, and trying to manage emerging contaminants, eventually you run out of capacity. At least with conventional treatment systems. With BioPorts MBBR and IFAS processes, however, intensification of biological nutrient removal (BNR) has never been simpler.

It’s intensified: With BioPorts, intensification looks like achieving more treatment in the same (or a minimal increase in) footprint. Thanks to its patented media design, as well as substantial advances in basin aeration and mixing, your BioPorts MBBR or IFAS upgrade produces substantial treatment improvements over traditional treatment and even other attached-growth implementations.

It’s customizable: Your BioPorts system can be configured for your specific requirements, whether you need to:

  • rough/remove/polish BOD,
  • nitrify ammonia,
  • denitrify nitrates/total nitrogen,
  • biologically remove phosphorus,
  • some combination of these, or
  • all of the above.

If you have an activated sludge process that needs additional capacity and must address new limits, BioPorts processes are right for you. Because its patented media and aeration so effectively provides the ideal conditions to grow and retain the bacteria that provides your treatment, it can help you meet your treatment needs in a fraction the space of most other process technologies.

Reduce phosphorus simply using a BioPorts™ IFAS upgrade.

BioPorts makes biological phosphorus removal accessible using its easy-to-run IFAS systems.

Get your plant ready for phosphorus compliance

Our engineers are leading experts in optimizing WWTPs of all kinds for nutrient removal.

USING MBBRS FOR POST-LAGOON TREATMENT

Understand the keys to making this historically-difficult process combination work, and work well.

 

lagoons and MBBRs, together at last.

Why Nexom’s expertise with BioPorts is changing the face of post-lagoon treatment, again.

As perhaps the only company to specialize in both lagoon-based and MBBR-based wastewater treatment, we understand that history is littered with failed attempts to mix lagoons and MBBRs. This means we’re optimally positioned to answer the question:

What are the keys to a successful post-lagoon MBBR?

  1. Give nature the credit it deserves. The natural world is incredibly complex and understanding the complete ecosystem that is any one pond is near impossible, never mind that every lagoon, in every climate or season, is a little different.
    Nexom has a complete suite of proven lagoon-based technologies for any climate. As experts in both the SAGR cold water post-lagoon nitrification system and the BioPorts MBBR, Nexom knows cold water biofilm-based treatment. We have more than a decade of learning about these post-lagoon technologies, with over a hundred full-scale operating SAGR systems across North America, dating back to 2007, and the earliest post-lagoon BioPorts MBBR date back to 2009.
  2. Build an MBBR that is ready for fall and winter. Oversizing your MBBR for winter isn’t enough. Some suppliers will propose MBBRs while ignoring the impact of summer/fall nitrification in the upstream lagoons; this leads to biomass starvation in summer, when the warm lagoons are operating at full capacity, and an inability to grow MBBR biomass in cold water, when the biomass metabolism and reproduction drops to near-zero levels.
  3. Understand that ammonia rebounds in settling ponds. When examining options, we look at long-term plant effluent data, not just post-MBBR data. Many post-lagoon MBBRs use settling ponds to ensure suspended solids levels also meet compliance. But this creates an issue: these settling ponds collect solids that, as they degrade, release the ammonia that was consumed in the MBBR back into the wastewater.

Since every lagoon-based system is different, reach out to our lagoon and MBBR experts. We have the expertise and technology to ensure you never have to worry about your lagoon’s performance again.

Did you know:

How we stress test our post-lagoon MBBRs

Over the past three years Nexom has extensively tested and studied many different configurations of post-lagoon MBBRs in harsh conditions at lagoons across western Canada. We have learned a tremendous amount about what it will take to make a reliable, robust post-lagoon MBBR.

LABORATORY SERVICES & IN-HOUSE TESTING

We know our MBBR and IFAS systems work with all kinds of water. How will they work with yours? We can know that, too.

 

MBBR or IFAS solutions are flexible.

Your compliance is not.

Having confidence your MBBR or IFAS solution will meet your requirements or is properly calibrated should not be “nice-to-haves.”

With our laboratory services and in-house testing facilities at both our Winnipeg and Columbia locations, our team of engineers and Ph.Ds can help you get the assurance you need that your reaction kinetics are dialed in, your aeration performance metrics are precise, and much more. And you can access these services before, during, and well after you commit to our technologies.

Tried and tested technologies

Contact our MBBR & IFAS design engineers and find out how our laboratory services and in-house testing can help ensure your upgrade’s success.

our MBBR & IFAS solutions aren't the only things designed for your needs.

...we work to accommodate how you work, too!

 

Our world-class MBBR & IFAS experts are at your service.

We’d love to offer you a glimpse at how we customize our approach to MBBR & IFAS treatment to your system’s needs. Find the group that most closely matches you, or reach out so we can help you move your project forward today!

Get from RFP through construction without breaking a sweat

MBBR & IFAS processes that work for engineers and consultants too.

 

Do more of the work you love, and get it done faster.

Our MBBR/IFAS experts help you move your project forward and leave your clients raving.

The technical merits of the BioPorts MBBR or IFAS upgrades are well-documented. But there’s a lot that makes a project successful that goes beyond screen size or surface-area-per-volume statistics.

Some of our MBBR/IFAS experts have Ph.D’s in wastewater treatment, others have more than 30 years’ experience innovating MBBRs. But the one thing all of them have in common is a commitment to helping you meet your clients’ needs efficiently, quickly, and in a way that leaves your clients beaming with pride over their treatment plant and telling everyone they know about the great experience they had.

They will provide…

  • Quick responses to questions and in-depth guidance for solving treatment needs
  • Process design support and system sizing to ensure the optimal solution and implementation
  • Final design-ready drawings that make getting to bid day easier and more efficient

We can even offer installation and even long-term service through SiteWorks for single-source responsibility and the assurance of customer satisfaction.

Working with us is as easy as…

Submit your RFP

...or simply reach out to our friendly staff and have them walk you through the details we need. Yes, you can get started today!

Design-Support

You receive design support and final design-ready drawings, with the support of our expert engineers who work with you to identify the solution to your wastewater treatment requirements.

We Supply Our Exclusive Technologies

Our exclusive technologies will set your project apart and are delivered to site on time to keep contractors on schedule and accountants happy. Our qualified staff commissions our installations, assuring clients that our technologies work to specification and equipping operators with the knowledge they need from day one.

Never Worry About Nutrient Limits Again

We continue to stand behind the installation, long after the shovels and hardhats have left the site. Our support teams ensure our technologies exceed expectations, and they equip operators with the knowledge they need to keep it that way. Throughout the long life of the technology, our friendly staff is ready to supply any needed service or parts. After all, we are committed to our mission, that no engineer or operator should ever have to worry about nutrient limits again.

More treatment in less real estate.

MBBR & IFAS for municipal wastewater treatment plants

 

Can Wastewater treatment make your constituents happier?

With more treatment in less real estate and a smaller utility bill, it can’t hurt to try.

It’s not magic, it’s a technological step forward. BioPorts MBBR or IFAS upgrades allow you to meet your BOD, ammonia, and/or nitrate limits more reliably, with greater O&M simplicity, in a compact space that makes it easy to fit into your existing plant’s footprint.

Without getting too deep into wastewater jargon, it works because…

  • Providing more homes means you can grow more biomass in less space. Think of a BioPorts MBBR or IFAS system as a high-density, high-rise condo development for your wastewater-treating microorganisms. The BioPorts media creates more ideal living space per volume of tank space, so you can increase your plant’s capacity easily and quickly.
  • You hang on to the microorganisms that do the work. Because the plastic BioPorts media provides a surface for the biomass to grow on, it prevents the microorganisms from getting flushed out of your system and needing to be recycled or regrown. This makes your system more responsive to changes in loading and eliminates the need for a sludge recycle process.
  • High-efficiency performance at a low-O&M price. Because the plastic BioPorts media blocks the bubbles from rising too quickly and breaks them down into smaller bubbles, your MBBR or IFAS tanks will get the excellent oxygen-transfer efficiency of our fine-bubble aeration at a membrane-free aeration price tag.

Reduce BOD, ammonia, nitrogen, even phosphorus with BioPorts™.

BioPorts uses our proprietary HDPE media and a high-efficiency aerated environment to create an easy-to-run BOD- or nutrient-consuming powerhouse.

Industrial-strength doesn't have to mean "large"

MBBR & IFAS for industrial applications

 

Grateful to be trusted by a wide range of customers.

To learn more about what we have done for various clients, populations, and industries (and what we can provide for your project), choose the category that most closely matches yours, below.

We are proud to have built a reputation for serving the following industries.

That said, even if you don't see yours listed below, contact us so our experts can meet your wastewater treatment needs.