Experimental Oxygen Mass Transfer Study of Micro-Perforated Diffusers

Robert Herrmann-Heber, Florian Ristau, Ehsan Mohseni, Sebastian Felix Reinecke and Uwe Hampel
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Robert Herrmann-Heber: Department of Experimental Thermal Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328 Dresden, Germany
Florian Ristau: Department of Experimental Thermal Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328 Dresden, Germany
Ehsan Mohseni: Department of Experimental Thermal Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328 Dresden, Germany
Sebastian Felix Reinecke: Department of Experimental Thermal Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328 Dresden, Germany
Uwe Hampel: Department of Experimental Thermal Fluid Dynamics, Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Bautzner Landstraße 400, 01328 Dresden, Germany

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 21, 1-14

Abstract: We studied new micro-perforated diffuser concepts for the aeration process in wastewater treatment plants and evaluated their aeration efficiency. These are micro-perforated plate diffusers with orifice diameters of 30 µm, 50 µm and 70 µm and a micro-perforated tube diffuser with an orifice diameter of 50 µm. The oxygen transfer of the diffuser concepts is tested in clean water, and it is compared with commercial aerators from the literature. The micro-perforated tube diffuser and micro-perforated plate diffusers outperform the commercial membrane diffusers by up to 44% and 20%, respectively, with regard to the oxygen transfer efficiency. The most relevant reason for the improved oxygen transfer is the fine bubble aeration with bubble sizes as small as 1.8 mm. Furthermore, the more homogenous cross-sectional bubble distribution of the micro-perforated tube diffuser has a beneficial effect on the gas mass transfer due to less bubble coalescence. However, the pressure drop of micro-perforated diffusers seems to be the limiting factor for their standard aeration efficiencies due to the size and the number of orifices. Nevertheless, this study shows the potential for better aeration efficiency through the studied conceptual micro-perforated diffusers.

Keywords: micro-perforated diffuser; oxygen transfer efficiency; oxygen mass transfer; aeration efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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