Improving the efficiency of small-scale wastewater treatment by pneumatic agitation
Small-scale anaerobic and aerobic systems for wastewater treatment suffer relatively low efficiencies due primarily to a lack of mechanical agitation/mixing. Here, a pneumatic agitation system was designed by installing a U-tube between the anaerobic and anoxic units, pumping air to the closed heads...
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Published in | Environmental technology & innovation Vol. 26; p. 102220 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Elsevier B.V
01.05.2022
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Small-scale anaerobic and aerobic systems for wastewater treatment suffer relatively low efficiencies due primarily to a lack of mechanical agitation/mixing. Here, a pneumatic agitation system was designed by installing a U-tube between the anaerobic and anoxic units, pumping air to the closed headspace of the anaerobic unit and releasing the pressurized air through the U-tube to create turbulence of the fluid. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation and fluid tracer trial were used to describe the fluid status in a lab-scale system (13 L). The results demonstrated that a continuous 5-cycle pneumatic agitation achieved a complete mixing of the static fluid. The retention time factor (β) and short-circuiting flow coefficient (ti/HRT) were increased from 0.93 to 1.14 and 0.02 to 0.27, respectively, indicating that pneumatic agitation significantly reduced dead zone and short-circuiting flow. A prototype at a treatment capacity of 300 L/d was installed in the North-East suburb of Beijing (40.15° N, 116.95° E) to treat rural household wastewater consisting of 630–1200 mg/L chemical oxygen demand and 20–45 mg/L total nitrogen. The field test was monitored in a period of 75 days from September to November 2018. The average removal rate for COD and TN was 96% and 92%, respectively by 10 times/h pneumatic agitation as compared to 49% and 45% without pneumatic agitation. The pneumatic agitation provides a low cost, easy operation and maintenance and efficient means for small-scale domestic wastewater treatment.
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•Pneumatic agitation improved the performance of small-scale wastewater treatment.•CFD simulation was applied to describe the process of the pneumatic agitation.•Fluid tracer trials were employed to analyze the hydraulic characteristics.•A prototype of 300 L/d was installed on-site to treat a rural household wastewater. |
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ISSN: | 2352-1864 2352-1864 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.eti.2021.102220 |