An Alternative Mathematical Model For Oxygen Transfer Evaluation In Clean Water

By Yanjun (John) He, PE, BCEE, Kruger Inc.

Energy consumption from aeration system is a biggest part of the total energy cost in wastewater treatment plant and account for as much as 60% of the energy consumption for the activated sludge process. Therefore, it is very important to know how effective the aeration system and significant attention has been paid to development and upgrade of standard method for quantifying oxygen transfer efficiency of the aeration system. In order to evaluate the performance of different types of aeration systems, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and US EPA jointly developed a standard for the measurement of oxygen transfer in Clean Water in 1984. The Standard was subsequently improved, updated, and republished in 1991 and 2006. The focus of this paper has been to develop an alternative model which includes more parameters than the standard method. A new model would probably be a more accurate description of the aeration process and give more reliable oxygen transfer performance evaluation results.