Comparison of the results of calculating aeration tanks according to the method of Danilovich–Epov and ASM2d model
(рart 2)

Summary

The analysis of the method for calculating aeration tanks proposed by D. A. Danilovich and A. N. Epov, based on the German ATV method, is continued. Due to certain limitations of the empirical ATV methodology developed on the basis of the data on the wastewater the authors were able to study, the ATV methodology cannot be applied anywhere except the treatment facilities where those studies were carried out. The Methodology has been compared with ASM2d model (a matrix of enzyme kinetics equations describing the growth rates of microorganisms and the rates of the corresponding biochemical processes), as well as with the NII VODGEO/SamGTU method that is a completely theoretical model, and the calculation formulas being enzyme kinetics equations. Calculations of aeration tanks according to the formulas of enzyme kinetics were laid down in SNiP «Sewerage. External Networks and Structures» in 1974; whereas in SNiP 1984, the calculation was given in the form of a proven methodology for biological treatment facilities for the oxidation of organic compounds. The empirical approach proposed in the Methodology opens not only a technological question about the scope of its application, but also the question of its expediency in general. The use of empirical approaches, to which the Methodology belongs, formally connects the inherent parameters in the form of invariable coefficients and empirical dependencies obtained experimentally in a narrow range of parameters and conditions of a particular object bringing the risks of significant errors. It is shown that the Methodology for municipal wastewater provides for underestimated volumes of aeration tanks by tens of percent compared with the results of calculations using the theoretical methods ASM2d and VODGEO/SamGTU developed by V. N. Shvetsov, S. V. Stepanov, K. M. Morozova that describe wastewater treatment processes using enzyme kinetics formulas. Herewith, it is shown that ASM2d and the VODGEO/SamGTU methodology give a high convergence of the results within differences of less than 10% which allows to speak about the robustness of the ASM2d model and the VODGEO/SamGTU methodology, and the limitations of the Method that can be used only for rough estimates.

Key words

wastewater , biological treatment , nitrification , denitrification , activated sludge , kinetic constants , theoretical and empirical mathematical models , ASM2d , NII VODGEO/SamGTU methodology , enzyme kinetics equations , comparative calculation