Bioflocculation, which can be defined as aggregation of bacterial flocs, has important implications on the physical characteristics of sludge. It is especially critical to settling and dewatering systems which impacts the overall economy of the process greatly. One of the most common problems in activated sludge systems to negatively influence the settleability is sludge bulking which can be defined as non-settling situation of microbial mass.
The first objective of this research is to investigate the effect of calcium ion on sludge bulking in a phosphorus deficient medium and the second objective is to improve the settling, dewatering, and pumping of activated sludge by adjusting the calcium (Ca) ion concentration of the feed. For this purpose, 7 semi-continuous laboratory scale activated sludge reactors were operated with a mixed aerobic culture. The reactors had 8 days of sludge residence time and aerated with air pumps to provide a dissolved oxygen concentration of at least 3 mg/L. All the analyses were conducted after the reactors reached steady state condition.
In the first part of the research, the effect of strictly phosphorus-limited medium on bulking of activated sludge was studied at different calcium ion concentration. Three reactors were set up having 5, 10 and 20 meq/L calcium concentrations. From the results it was observed that, phosphorus deficiency caused viscous bulking independent from the calcium ion concentration. It was found out that bulking of activated sludges due to phosphorus deficiency could be cured by the addition of phosphorus. Furhermore, microorganisms starved for phosphorus, seemed to accumulate polyphosphate granules when they were exposed to a phosphorus source.
In the second part of the study, the effect of calcium ion on physical, chemical and surface chemical properties of activated sludge was investigated at 4 different concentrations (0.27, 5, 10 and 20 meq/L) under sufficient phosphorus concentration. Calcium addition resulted in significant changes in the quantity and quality of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Total EPS increased depending on the calcium concentration. Carbohydrate content of EPS dominated over the protein content for calcium concentration of 5 meq/L and above. The amount of calcium ions incorporated into the sludge floc matrix also increased with the dose of calcium added. Settleability and dewaterability of sludge improved significantly at 5 meq/L dose of calcium. However, settleability did not change any further with increasing calcium dose, whereas dewaterability increased for all increasing calcium concentrations. Sludge viscosity also decreased considerably at 5 meq/L concentration indicating better pumpability but it did not change further above 10 meq/L calcium addition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12606304/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 August 2005 |
| Creators | Vatansever, Aysun |
| Contributors | Sanin, Dilek Faika |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
Page generated in 0.0023 seconds