Calculation of peak oxygen demand in the design of full-scale nutrient removal activated sludge plants

Abstract

The sizing of the aeration system is a very important factor in the design of activated sludge plants. An aeration system with insufficient capacity to meet the peak oxygen demand results in unaerated pockets in the aerobic reactor thus affecting the performance of the plant. In this paper, two methods of calculating oxygen demand are compared, namely, empirical design rules and computer based dynamic simulation models. A computer based nutrient removal simulation model is applied to simulate the dynamic response of four full-scale biological nutrient removal plants. The simulation results are used to assess whether one of the design rules developed for fully aerobic plants, under cyclic loading conditions, can be reasonably applied to nutrient removal plants.

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