Enhancement of Wastewater Disinfection Efficiency in Full-Scale Ozone Bubble-Diffuser Contactors

Tracer and disinfection tests were performed with the ozone bubble-diffuser contactors at the Belmont and Southport Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plants operated by the City of Indianapolis, Department of Public Works. The objective of the study was to develop a better understanding for the role of hydrodynamics and contactor design on the disinfection efficiency achieved in these contactors. Tracer tests were performed at varying gas and wastewater flow rates. The results indicated that high backmixing occurred within each chamber of the over-under ozone bubble-diffuser contactor trains. The addition of three baffles to one of the contactor trains resulted in a decrease in overall contactor backmixing. Low contactor backmixing was observed at high wastewater flow rates combined with high or medium gas flow rates for both the modified and original trains. Monitoring of effluent fecal coliform concentrations for both the original and modified contactor trains revealed lower average concentrations in the modified train effluent as compared to the original train.