Systematic Modeling of Municipal Wastewater Activated Sludge Process and Treatment Plant Capacity Analysis Using GPS-X

Nuhu Dalhat Mu’azu, Omar Alagha and Ismail Anil
Additional contact information
Nuhu Dalhat Mu’azu: Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31451, Saudi Arabia
Omar Alagha: Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31451, Saudi Arabia
Ismail Anil: Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, Dammam 31451, Saudi Arabia

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-26

Abstract: Mathematical modeling has become an indispensable tool for sustainable wastewater management, especially for the simulation of complex biochemical processes involved in the activated sludge process (ASP), which requires a substantial amount of data related to wastewater and sludge characteristics as well as process kinetics and stoichiometry. In this study, a systematic approach for calibration of the activated sludge model one (ASM1) model for a real municipal wastewater ASP was undertaken in GPS-X. The developed model was successfully validated while meeting the assumption of the model’s constant stoichiometry and kinetic coefficients for any plant influent compositions. The influences of vital ASP parameters on the treatment plant performance and capacity analysis for meeting local discharge limits were also investigated. Lower influent chemical oxygen demand in mgO 2 /L (COD) could inhibit effective nitrification and denitrification, while beyond 250 mgO 2 /L, there is a tendency for effluent quality to breach the regulatory limit. The plant performance can be satisfactory for handling even higher influent volumes up to 60,000 m 3 /d and organic loading when Total Suspended Solids/Volatile Suspended Solids (VSS/TSS) and particulate COD (X COD )/VSS are maintained above 0.7 and 1, respectively. The wasted activated sludge (WAS) has more impact on the effluent quality compared to recycle activated sludge (RAS) with significant performance improvement when the WAS was increased from 3000 to 9000 m 3 /d. Hydraulic retention time (HRT) > 6 h and solids retention time (SRT) < 7 days resulted in better plant performance with the SRT having greater impact compared with HRT. The plant performance could be sustained for a quite appreciable range of COD/5-day Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD 5 in mgO 2 /L) ratio, Mixed Liquor Suspended Solid (MLSS) of up to 6000 mg/L, and when BOD 5 /total nitrogen (TN) and COD/TN are comparatively at higher values. This work demonstrated a systematic approach for estimation of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) ASP parameters and the high modeling capabilities of ASM1 in GPS-X when respirometry tests data are lacking.

Keywords: activated sludge model 1 (ASM1); GPS-X Mantis model l model; model calibration and validation; municipal wastewater management; stoichiometric and kinetic parameters; treatment performance evaluation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8182/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/19/8182/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:19:p:8182-:d:423627

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().