DefinePK

Abstract

Aeration system is an essential part of wastewater plants. Aeration system represents the major energy consuming element in the wastewater treatment plants. Mathematical model is developed to calculate the energy usage for the diffusion and mechanical aeration systems. To evaluate the model parameters, oxygen transfer in clean water was studied. The model parameters were estimated using non-linear regression method. The model can be used to predict the oxygen and energy requirements for diffused-air and mechanical aeration systems. For 1000 m3/day, the size of aeration system will be 10.6 kW using mechanical aeration system or 31.3 kW using diffused aeration system. The calculation indicated that using diffused aeration system will increase energy requirements by more than 200%. However, the calculation is only valid for the system under study. The article represents a simplified mathematical model to estimate the energy requirements for the mechanical and diffused aeration systems.