Performance Assessment of Venturi-Assisted Confined Tube Aerators with Varying Diameter

Roohany Mahmud, Joseph Carpenter and David W. MacPhee ()
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Roohany Mahmud: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
Joseph Carpenter: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA
David W. MacPhee: Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Carleton University, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: A significant amount of energy in wastewater treatment plants is spent on aeration to treat the organic matter with microorganisms in an oxygen-enriched environment. In this study, a novel and simplistic aeration concept known as Confined Tube Aeration (CTA) is proposed, in which the main elements are a Venturi injector and a coiled tube at its outlet. Two Venturi injector diameters were chosen for evaluation in this study, measuring 1 inch (25.4 mm) and 4 inch (101.6 mm). In this study, a relationship was developed between air suction rate and pressure differential across the injector. Then, a numerical model was developed to analyze hydrodynamic conditions and evaluate system performance. The main findings are that the larger diameter aerator performs 20% better than the smaller injector in terms of standard aeration efficiency (SAE), with a maximal value of 0.74 kgO 2 /kWh found for the larger diameter system. These results suggest that future SAE improvements may be made for larger diameter systems in full-scale wastewater treatment applications with suitably designed injectors.

Keywords: Venturi; injector; efficiency; wastewater (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: 2024
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