Cause of foaming in waste water

[plumberet]

I work in an oil and gas company with a waste water treatment plant. Now and then, we have foaming in the storage tank. Sometimes in the biotreater as well. Like to know from your experience on possible causes of the foaming, method to determine the cause and method to reduce or eliminate this foaming ( adding chemical ? )

Looks more like chemical foaming than biological foaming as the foaming is in the feed tank.

 

[bimr]

Surfactants (saop) will cause the chemical foaming.

There is not much you can do if the foaming is from surfactants. There may be design issues where you can reduce the turbulence or mixing to reduce the generation of foam.

Silicone anti-foaming agents are effective. The cost depends on how much that you have to use.

 

[bimr]

http://www.dowcorning.com/content/foodbev/antifoam.asp

 

[redbridge]

Not enough waste will cause a plant to foam.

 

[shahyar]

Removing root of problem: removing surfactants from your ww.
Chemical defoaming: adding agents to reduce surface tension. Silicone is the king of them but very expensive and is not economical in WWTP's (I used it in other application).
Mechanical defoaming:by water spraying and for strong foams steam injection.
For storage tanks the best thing is water spray on the surface of ww.

 

[chief]

A cheap and simple anti-foam method is to inject vegetable oil. This is available in your local supermarket.

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