Effect of Aluminium Salt Dosing on Activated Sludge Settleability Indicators: A New Settleability Model Development

• Main Authors: Peter Ojo, Augustine Osamor Ifelebuegu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-01-01
• Series: Water
• Subjects: activated sludge; settleability; zone settling velocity; alum; stirred sludge volume index
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/11/1/179

There has been a significant rise in the use of aluminium salts (Al³⁺) for the chemical precipitation of phosphates in wastewater treatment plants due to growing stricter regulatory requirements for wastewater effluent release to the environment. The modelling of the settleability of the resultant Al³⁺ sludge in present engineering practice for design and optimisation are still based on conventional sludge settleability models. This paper describes a novel activated sludge settleability model which is designed to analyse the effects of Al³⁺ dosing on activated sludge settleability indicators, zone settling velocity (ZSV), and stirred specific volume index (SSVI). The impact of Al³⁺ dosing concentrations on ZSV and SSVI of full scale activated sludge plant were analysed in the laboratory over a three years’ period and the exponential form of the Vesilind equation was optimised and validated to include alum chemical dosing parameters. The proposed model equation was found to effectively describe the settleability of Al³⁺ dosed sludge for dosing concentrations range of 0 to 100 mg/L.