EFFICIENCY OF AERATION METHODS FOR NITROGEN TREATMENT IN A WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT

Abstract

This paper presents the result of comparing two methods of total nitrogen reduction in the same wastewater treatment plant: 1) use of one biological tank with a discrete aeration operation (ON / OFF); 2) use of two biological tanks with continuous aeration operation for only second tank (aerobic), the first one works like an anoxic tank. In both cases, the dynamic simulation and optimization is performed with measured data, energy consumption for aeration operation to reduce the total nitrogen in the wastewater and other concentrations is considered to satisfy the discharge regulations. The comparison of these two methods is presented after optimization by the best operation condition. The result shows that the economic efficiency is not much different between the two methods, but both of them the energy consumption after optimization reduce about 70% compared to the reality operating policy of the wastewater treatment plant.