Title: A GENERAL MODEL FOR THE ACTIVATED SLUDGE PROCESS
Abstract: A comparison of experimental data with those predicted by the mathematical model of Ekama and Marais (1978) describing the dynamic behaviour of the completely mixed activated sludge (CMAS) process, indicated that certain hypotheses in this model needed replacement. The following principal changes were made: (1) The energy requirement for adsorption was replaced by a bi-substrate hypothesis. In this hypothesis municipal wastewaters are taken to consist of two substrates - a rapidly biodegradable soluble and a slowly biodegradable particulate substrate. The growth behaviour of the former is in accordance with the classical Monod (1950) formulation; while the growth behaviour of the latter is controlled by the rate of extracellular enzymatic breakdown of the large complex molecules to simpler ones before transference through the cell walls. (2) The extracellular growth-limiting reaction is modelled by an active site theory and replaces the modified Blackwell (1971) equation for synthesis of stored particulate substrate. (3) The classical endogenous respiration concept is replaced by a death-regeneration one. Incorporation of these concepts in the CMAS process equations give excellent description of the process behaviour (oxygen utilization rate, volatile solids production, COD, TKN, nitrate) under constant and cyclic flow and load conditions for single and multiple reactor configurations. The model allows extension to the single sludge nitrification-denitrification and the contact stabilization processes although these are not discussed in this paper.
Publication Year: 1981
Publication Date: 1981-01-01
Language: en
Type: book-chapter
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 270
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