North American performance experience with anoxic and anaerobic selectors for activated sludge bulking control

Abstract

Obtaining reliably high compaction characteristics and low SVI values has enormous economic consequences on activated sludge plant design and operation. Now that use of selectors has become more common for achieving low SVI values, the assessment of the full-scale performance characteristics of activated sludge plants incorporating selectors has high value for the design and operation of future plants. Treatment plant effluent quality is seldom analyzed solely on an average basis and the impact peak events have on effluent quality must be considered in design and operation. Descriptive statistics should also be used to assess selector performance, so that the influence of infrequently occurring values on plant design and operation can be assessed. The performance of 21 activated sludge plants incorporating selectors was evaluated. All the selector plants for which post installation data were available showed that the operating SVI values were significantly improved. One plant studied in detail showed that final effluent quality was significantly better after the selector installation. As a group, activated sludge plants with anaerobic selectors outperform those with anoxic selectors. Dissolved oxygen control is just as important in activated sludge plants with selectors as in conventional activated sludge plants.