Jeff Knollenberg has been providing solutions to process industries for over 30 years. Much of his career has been dedicated to improving fluid separations. He has previously served with Pall Corporation, Alfa Laval, Valicor Advanced Separations Group, and Gryphon Environmental. Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science in Ag Mechanization from the University of Illinois and now serves as Vice President of Sales for Heron Innovators, Inc.

Removal of suspended solids from wastewater has traditionally been performed by clarifiers in municipal settings.  In industrial applications, where solids loading is often higher, flotation equipment is more commonly used.  With both methods, reducing water content in the removed solids is advantageous to reduce disposal costs or subsequent loading on downstream dewatering equipment or digesters.   Suspended Air® Flotation has shown to provide enhanced performance over traditional methods in both roles, clarification and thickening, in primary, secondary, and lagoon applications.

SAF® separation uses charged microbubbles, called aphrons, which are mixed into the influent wastewater stream ahead of a separator tank.  Aphrons have an electrostatic affinity and surface tension advantage to attract, attach, and encapsulate solids for improved capture rate, rise rate, and robust flotation.  Clarifiers, which rely on gravity settling and are sometimes challenged by solids that naturally float, can be replaced with SAF to instead float all the solids in a much smaller footprint.  Moreover, because SAF® produces a more robust solids blanket that drains very well, it provides a lower cost alternative to traditional thickening equipment.

SAF® systems are operating throughout North America in industrial and municipal applications.  Case studies will be presented showing improvement in removal performance, power consumption, operating and maintenance costs, throughput capacity, and capital cost avoidance.