THE INFLUENCE OF AERATOR MOUNTING AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT DESIGN ON THE PERFORMANCE OF AERATION SYSTEMS

The paper analyzes the impact of the way of mounting a tube diffuser, the design of an aeration tank and the presence of a fixed carrier on the operational parameters of aeration systems used in small wastewater treatment plants. It was found out that the vertically mounted tube diffuser decreased standard oxygen transfer rate (SOTR) of the aeration system by approximately 20% and standard oxygen transfer efficiency (SOTE) by 25% comparing to the horizontally mounted tube diffuser. It was also defined that the design of the aeration tank might have an impact on the operation parameters of the aeration system: when the centre shell used to protect a diffuser was dismantled from a test tank, SOTR and SOTE increased by approximately 20%. It was also established that the presence of the fixed carrier in the aeration tank did not have an impact on the performance of aeration systems. Finally, research was carried out to compare the operational parameters of two diffusers of different types offered on the market and used in small wastewater treatment plants. It was found out that the performance different type diffusers might vary considerably.