Activated Sludge Design (Complete Mix Reactor)

Rajendra Kurup
Adjunct Lecturer Director
Environmental Science, Environmental Engineers Murdoch University, Perth International, Perth WA rkurup@murdoch.edu.au eei@members.asce.org Tel: 9246 7379 Fax: 9203 8780; Mobile: 0402843429

Activated Sludge Principles

Wastewater is aerated in a tank Bacteria are encouraged to grow by providing
Oxygen Food (BOD) Nutrients Correct temperature Time

As bacteria consume BOD, they grow and multiply Treated wastewater flows into secondary clarifier Bacterial cells settle, removed from clarifier as sludge Part of sludge is recycled back to activated sludge tank, to maintain bacteria population Remainder of sludge is wasted

Schematic of activated sludge unit

Kinetics of Microbial Growth

Biochemical reaction Biomass concentration. The concentration of biomass, X (mg/L), increases as a function of time due to conversion of food to biomass: Where m is the specific growth rate constant (d-1). This represents the mass of cells produced/mass of cells per unit of time.

Effect of substrate concentration on growth rate constant

Monod Kinetics
Growth rate
Growth rate constant, m , is a function of the substrate concentration, S. Two constants are used to describe the growth rate
m m (mg/L) is the maximum growth rate constant (the rate at which the susbtrate concentration is not limiting) Ks is the half-saturation constant (mg/L) (i.e., concentration of S when m = m m/2

 Biomass production

Where kd represents the endogenous decay rate (d-1) (i.e., microorganism death rate).
Substituting the growth rate constant:

 Substrate utilization

Where Y is the yield factor (mg of biomass produced/mg of food consumed) Y range:
Aerobic: 0.4 - 0.8 mg/mg

 Food to microorganism ratio (F/M)

Represents the daily mass of food supplied to the microbial biomass, X, in the mixed liquor suspended solids, MLSS Units are Kg BOD5/Kg MLSS/day

 Since the hydraulic retention time, q = V/Qo, then

Typical range of F/M ratio in activated sludge units

Treatment Process

F/M Kg BOD5/Kg MLSS/day

Extended aeration

0.03 - 0.8

Conventional

0.8 - 2.0

High rate

> 2.0

Design parameters for activated sludge processes

Process

q c ( d)
5-15
5-15 5-15 0.2-0.5 5-15

q ( h)
4-8
3-5 3-5 1.5-3 0.5-1 3-6 18-36 0.5-2 1-3

F/M

Qr/Q

X (mg/L)

Conventional
Complete-mix Step-aeration Modifiedaeration Contactstabilization Extendedaeration High-rate aeration Pure-oxygen

0.2-0.4
0.2-0.6 0.2-0.4 1.5-5.0 0.2-0.6

0.25-5
0.25-1 0.25-0.75 0.05-0.15 0.25-1

1,500-3,000
3,000-6,000 2,000-3,500 200 500 1,000-3,000 4,00010,000 3,000-6,000 4,00010,000 6,000-8,000

20-30 5-10 8-20

0.05-0.15 0.4-1.5 0.25-1.0

0.75-1.5 1-5 0.25-0.5

Operational characteristics of activated sludge processes

Process
Conventional Complete-mix Step-aeration

Flow model
Plug-flow Complete-mix Plug-flow

Aeration system
Diffused air, mechanical aerators Diffused air, mechanical aerators Diffused air

BOD5 removal efficiency (%)

85-95 85-95 85-95

Modified-aeration
Contactstabilization Extended-aeration

Plug-flow
Plug-flow Complete-mix

Diffused air
Diffused air, mechanical aerators Diffused air, mechanical aerators

60-75
80-90 75-95

High-rate aeration
Pure-oxygen

Complete-mix
Complete-mix

Diffused air, mechanical aerators

Mechanical aerators

75-90
85-95

Activated Sludge Design Equations

Mass balance of biomass production
Influent biomass + biomass production = effluent biomass + sludge wasted

Substitute biomass production equation

Assume that influent and effluent biomass concentrations are negligible and solve

Mass balance of food substrate

Influent substrate + substrate consumed = effluent susbtrate + sludge wasted substrate
Substitute substrate removal equation

Assume that no biochemical action takes place in clarifier. Therefore the substrate concentration in the aeration basin is equal to the substrate concentrations in the effluent and the waste activated sludge. Solve:

Overall equations
Combine the mass balance equations for food and biomass:

The cell residence time is: and the hydraulic retention time is,q = V/Qo Substitute and rearrange: Compute the F/M ratio