Solids routing in an activated sludge process during hydraulic overloads

In order to provide a quantitative description of solids wash-out from the settling tanks of an activated sludge process, a method for ''routing'' of the suspended solids through the settling tanks was developed. The objective was to develop a method which can be used to predict the mixed liquor suspended solids concentration (X) and the sludge blanket depth (SBD) in the clarifiers during transient hydraulic overloads. There were 27 individual hydraulic overloading events encountered during 31 months of study. The solids routing and the SBD prediction were performed for the individual storm flow events by using settling tank operating data. The results of solids routing analysis were found to be satisfactory. The mixed liquor solids concentration can be predicted within +/- 10%. The application of a solids storage relationship developed for the settling tanks was found to be useful for describing the dynamic behavior of the SBD during transient hydraulic overloads. The solids wash-out predictions for rainstorm periods corresponded with the plant performance. Operational procedures for avoiding solids wash-out are also discussed. Copyright (C) 1996 IAWQ. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.