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Predicted Distributed State Effects on Enhanced Biological Phosphorus Removal in a 5‐Stage Bardenpho Wastewater Treatment Configuration
Author(s) -
Schuler Andrew J.,
Xiao Yao
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143008x266797
Subject(s) - wastewater , phosphorus , environmental science , stage (stratigraphy) , sewage treatment , environmental engineering , waste management , chemistry , biology , engineering , organic chemistry , paleontology
Conventional wastewater treatment simulation programs use a “lumped” approach, where process rates are calculated using bulk concentrations of biomass and microbial storage products. A recently developed distributed, or agent‐based, approach, where individual bacteria are modeled to account for their potentially variable hydraulic experiences, was applied to the 5‐stage Bardenpho process, a type of enhanced biological phosphorus removal (EBPR) that includes internal recycle flows, which were hypothesized to affect distributed state development. Consistent with previous results, the EBPR predicted performance was worse according to the distributed approach than the lumped approach. In addition, increasing the internal recycle rate increased the anoxic reactor nitrate concentrations, tending to decrease EBPR performance. However, in the distributed approach, differences in the state distributions in internal recycle‐linked reactors decreased with increasing recycle flow, tending to improve EBPR. These phenomena tend to have simultaneous and opposite effects on EBPR. The net effect will depend largely on the specific systems and the nitrate concentration in anoxic reactors.