Aeration is the process at which air is added to water, an essential stage in wastewater treatment plants, since most of organic compounds are being treated through such an aeration process. This process also helps aerobic bacteria to survive from oxygenation to proliferate and digest organic materials. However, aeration consumes around 60% of the total cost of remediation. Therefore, any improvement in aeration efficiency (AE) will save a considerable amount of energy consumption. One way of reducing the power required is to decrease the back pressure of the air diffuser itself. In this study, a new material for manufacturing of fine air diffuser is presented. Polypropylene (PP) membrane, which is the new material chosen, shows lower back pressure values in comparison with Silver Series 2 (SS2) membrane at relatively low flow rates. The main reason behind choosing Polypropylene (PP) is that it has lower material resistance than SS2 with maintaining the capability of operation at the same pressure ranges in the aeration process. Despite the fact that SS2 has better oxygen transfer efficiency (OTE), PP membranes have significantly lower back pressure at relatively low flow rates which resulted in higher AE. In addition, contact angle measurements were done for PP and compared with previous measurements for the contact angle of SS2.
- Fluids Engineering Division
An Experimental Study of Reducing Back Pressure of Fine Air Diffuser Used in Wastewater Plants
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Al Ba'ba'a, HB, Prada, MA, Olson, CD, Alkhalidi, AAT, Amano, RS, & Li, J. "An Experimental Study of Reducing Back Pressure of Fine Air Diffuser Used in Wastewater Plants." Proceedings of the ASME 2014 4th Joint US-European Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting collocated with the ASME 2014 12th International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels, and Minichannels. Volume 1C, Symposia: Fundamental Issues and Perspectives in Fluid Mechanics; Industrial and Environmental Applications of Fluid Mechanics; Issues and Perspectives in Automotive Flows; Gas-Solid Flows: Dedicated to the Memory of Professor Clayton T. Crowe; Numerical Methods for Multiphase Flow; Transport Phenomena in Energy Conversion From Clean and Sustainable Resources; Transport Phenomena in Materials Processing and Manufacturing Processes. Chicago, Illinois, USA. August 3–7, 2014. V01CT16A006. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/FEDSM2014-21203
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