How to present novel mb methods to paper industry?

Novel methods of microbiology have been a most interesting topic for IM for decades. Beginning from 1970's, the value of ATPAssay and RR Test have been obvious, and both were adopted to paper industry on 1980's-1990's.

The increase of economical problems in paper industry are also very obvious today. IM has red articles and blogs about the reasons for this situation in this small, northern country with extensive forests: is it the problem of wood supply (= high Russian taxes for export and decreased activity by Finns themselves to sell their wood to the mills), the overcapacity of fine paper (other P&P products have no problems?) or both?

Back to the subject of my blog (after a short political survey, in which IM really has no expertice):

Paper companies are calling for tools to improve driveability of the machines, to catch better process control systems andto have lower number of product disqualification. Microbiological problems are still huge among all types of paper and board production, and QC methods like ON LINE ATP, BIOTOUCH Concept etc. could help significantly to lower the number of annual hours and days when the machines are stopped because microbiological problems.

But: how can we microbiologist publish these ideas? It seems that people, working for P&P industry, are more and more busy. How can we create a channel to deliver information about new methods to them?

Web-based marketing seems to be one challenging alternative to traditional paper articles, fairs etc. KK-Net (as an example) is doing a pioneer work to activate contacts between P&P industry and research institutes. This can be the way in future what we should follow. 

One must remember: Microbes are active day and night, no matter we may not are!

Shared responsibility for paper machine hygiene.

Current situation of process hygiene control in paper industry is relatively complicated.

No matter very effective control methods are already available (epifluorescence microscopy, ATP Assay, PCR, PMEU incubations) the roles of paper mills, biocide suppliers and raw material producers are not very clear.

Based on the experiences by Industrial Microbiologist since beginning of 80', it seems that paper mills prefer external services and this tendency is evergrowing today. Biocide suppliers have developed novel analyse methods which can be applied even at the mills, and many raw material suppliers know their response to deliver minerals, starches etc. with good hygienic quality for paper and board mills.

What should still be developed is the active role of paper mills themselves to control their machines. There is no more any need for expensive microbiological laboratories - in opposite, many methods could either be applied by wet end laboratories of the mills or be bought from external companies (ref. BIOTOUCH Service).

Wet end chemistry has already been controlled with ON LINE analyse units by certain institutes in Finland over years. ON LINE microbiological control is also coming soon, referring several current project proposals.

A combination of all parties - paper mills, biocide suppliers and raw material producers - would spare remarkable amount of money by optimizing biocide programs, by planning washing programs, by responsing immediately to hazardous situations and avoiding costs of returned products.

How to control the microbiological status of activated sludge?

There is one area of paper industry microbiology where active measures are needed to cultivate microbial flora: biological waste water treatment plants.

When focusing on activated sludge of aeration basin (anaerobic treatments will be discussed in another post), the roles of different microbes should first be understood.

The tasks of bacteria and protozoa - which are the beneficial microbial groups in the purification process - are different: bacteries are responsible for the transformations (mineralisation) of incoming organic compounds, Protozoa collects small particles (also bacteria) and acts as indicators of the activated sludge condition.

Bacteria shall also build up "flocs" which can settle down and be either returned backwards into the beginning of the purification process or totally removed from the plant. Significant amounts of nutrients will also be lead to the "sludge route" which is especially important for environmental reasons: no matter relatively low concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus (compared with municipal waste water effluents), the volumes of P&P waste water effluents are huge.

Traditional parameters which are related to the microbiological status of activated sludge are C:P:R ratio, temperature, pH and oxygen concentration. In addition, the share of Protozoan indicator organisms are checked by microscopical methods.

ATP Assay is also a fast and reliable method to check the viability of activated sludge and control unfavourable sludge escape from secondary sedimentation basins (IM has written his second graduate work about this issue on 90's).

Incubations with PMEU equipment (FINNOFLAG Oy, Finland) have been very successful when the effects of low oxygen concentrations on the structure of flocs are the subject of the study. This method, in connection of bright field/dark field/phase contrast microscopy, gives also fast responses (even in hours) when the detrimental effects of toxic water fractions on activated sludge flora shall be checked.

There are many reasons for the bulking of activated sludge: nutrient supply, oxygen concentration, temperature etc. In all cases, a layer of activated sludge will rise on the surface of the basin and cannot be taken away from the water flow to sedimentation stages.

Measurements of redox potentials can give more information about the risks of anaerobic growth in biological waste water purification systems than sole oxygen concentration analyses(practical reslusts by IM). RO potential control may also work as a replacement/addition to traditional Respiratory Rate test, often used to check the viability of activated sludge.

Microbial activities continue also in sedimentation basins. IM has detected a significant rise of nitrogen concentration in certain basins in studies performed on 80's. The reason is obviously the activity of a coliform species, Klebsiella pneumoniae, which is able to fix nitrogen from atmosphere (nitrogen fixation). The routes of the pathogenic Legionella pneumophila in the purification process should also be investigated more deeply. Novel types of analytical methods to replace the traditional colony count methods (intended in the control of household water) shall be developed, however: L.pneumophila is very hard to "find" among other bacteria and fungi which are capable to grow extensively on selective nutrient media for Legionella.

ON LINE control has - until now - not got any role in HACCP of waste water treatment systems but promising technical solutions are already available for semi-continuous control of activated sludge microbiology.