Commissioning of the emergency faecal sludge treatment plant in Imvepi, Uganda : Performance, challenges and cold climate adaptations
Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis evaluates the commissioning of an emergency faecal sludge treatment plant piloted in Imvepi, Uganda, to avoid the spread of diseases and other contaminants during crises, while also exploring the feasibility of adapting the units' sequencing batch reactor (SBR) to a cold climate crisis scenario. During the commissioning in Imvepi, several challenges were encountered, such as poorly settling sludge, foaming, variable influent quality, high pH, accumulation of NO2- and NO3- and laboratory challenges. Polymer use improved the settling in the SBR, and feeding the unit with new faecal sludge right before settling facilitated denitrification. Stable treatment performance was not reached within the first 1.5 months of operating the plant, although nutrients and organic matter were reduced in the SBR. The reduction varied depending on the challenges faced during the commissioning. Furthermore, the cold climate applicability was explored based on literature and calculations. This showed that the SBR can be implemented in a cold climate if the volume is increased, as biological activity is slower at lower temperatures. For a Swedish scenario with fresh faecal sludge, an internal SBR temperature of 12 °C and higher requirements on nitrogen removal, this would require more than 16 times the SBR volume used in Uganda. The pilot study in Uganda, along with the theoretical study on SBR treatment in cold climates, demonstrates that the emergency FSTP using SBR technology can be used in both tropical and cold climates if adapted to the local context and carefully monitored during the commissioning. However, further development of the plant is necessary to improve the treatment performance.
Author: Sternbeck, Maja
Language: English
Subfield: Pollution
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7111969808