Wastewater treatment plant design and modeling for the city of Erzurum

Abstract

Currently large amounts of wastewater are produced by domestic and industrial activities. Discharge of wastewater to the receiving environment without treatment causes significant health and environmental problems. Modeling and optimization of Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTP) developed to treat domestic wastewater play key roles in determining unit components, design parameters and operation conditions. Several models were proposed to predict the treatment performance in WWTP. The Activated Sludge Model No. 1 (ASM1) is one of the commonly-used standard models developed to better understand removal of carbonaceous and nitrogenous materials. In this study, a WWTP is proposed for domestic wastewater using grit chamber, circular primary and secondary clarifiers, completely-mixed aeration tank, sludge thickener, sludge dewatering and anaerobic digestion processes together. The WWTP was modeled with ASM1 noting the topographic and meteorological features of the city. The treatment performances with wastewater temperatures of 10°C and 20°C were investigated for this plant, operating at high elevation. Removal efficiencies at 20°C were 95.7%, 92.2%, 97.9% and 99.2% for MLSS, COD, BOD and NH4, while effluent concentrations were 14.83, 48.51, 6.55 and 0.3 mg L-1, respectively. At 10°C, removal efficiencies were 88.9%, 88%, 93.2%, and 26.9%, while effluent concentrations were 38, 75, 21.83 and 26.13 mg L-1, respectively. A clear reduction was observed in nitrogenous material removal at low temperatures. Additionally, keeping dissolved oxygen concentration in the aeration tank at 1.5 mg L-1 with PID control increased nitrification efficiency by 30%. The findings reveal the importance of modeling studies during planning of WWTP.