Abstract
In developing countries, and due to the high cost of treatment of industrial wastewater, municipal wastewater treatment facilities usually receive a mixture of municipal wastewater and partially treated industrial wastewater. As a result, an increased potential for shock loads with high pollutant concentrations is expected. The use of mathematical modelling of wastewater treatment is highly efficient in such cases. A dynamic model based on activated sludge model no. 3 (ASM3) describing the performance of the activated sludge process at a full scale wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) receiving mixed domestic–industrial wastewater located in an arid area is presented. ASM3 was extended by adding the Arrhenius equation to respond to changes in temperature. BioWin software V.4 was used as the model platform. The model was calibrated under steady-state conditions, adjusting only three kinetic and stoichiometric parameters: maximum heterotrophic growth rate (μH = 8 d−1), heterotrophic aerobic decay rate (bH, O2 = 0.18 d−1), and aerobic heterotrophic yield (YH,O2 = 0.4 (gCOD/gCOD)). ASM3 was successful in predicting the WWTP performance, as the model was validated with 10 months of routine daily measurements. ASM3 extended with the Arrhenius equation could be helpful in the design and operation of WWTPs with mixed municipal–industrial influent in arid areas.
Highlights
The most widely used biological wastewater treatment method is activated sludge, due to its flexibility, reliability, and high efficiency
The aim of this paper is to evaluate the capability of Activated sludge model no. 3 (ASM3) to describe the performance of full scale wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) that usually receive mixed domestic and industrial wastewater in developing countries with arid climates, such as in Egypt
The ASM3 model extended with the Arrhenius equation was used to simulate the performance of a full scale WWTP receiving mixed domestic–industrial wastewater and located in an arid area
Summary
The most widely used biological wastewater treatment method is activated sludge, due to its flexibility, reliability, and high efficiency. As efficient as the activated sludge method is, this method is notably sensitive to many factors such as temperature, type of wastewater, dissolved oxygen concentration, and plant operation (Tchobanoglous et al ). Mathematical modelling of the biological treatment offers an excellent tool to simulate activated sludge plants, predict the effluent quality under any circumstances and obtain a better understanding of the factors affecting the process. Activated sludge model no. 3 (ASM3) was developed to overcome certain defects of ASM1 and proposed to become a new standard for future modelling (Henze et al )
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