Design Criteria Assessment for the Aeration Tank in the Activated Sludge Process. (Dept. C)

Abstract

In Egypt, the use of activated sludge process for treating domestic wastewater has been started recently. Several of activated sludge plants have been constructed in cities and villages. The kinetic coefficients used in sizing of the aeration tanks for these plants were taken the same as in the developed countries although the climatic conditions, load variation, presence of industrial wastewater and wastewater characteristics in Egypt differ than that in developed countries. A continuous flow activated sludge pilot plant was operated in El-Mansoura university sanitary engineering laboratory to determine the kinetic coefficients for El-Mansoura city and Meet-Mazah village wastewater. The results indicated that the aeration tank design volume greatly influenced by wastewater kinetic coefficients and model used in the design. The aeration tank design volumes according to Lawrence and mccartys model and Kincannon and Stover model are almost equal. On the other hand the design volumes according to Eckenfelder model Eckenfelder modified model are very high compared to other models. In all cases, it is recommended to run a pilot plant to determine the wastewater kinetics for accurate sizing of aeration tanks.