Efecto de la temperatura en el desempeño de un sistema biológico de tratamiento de aguas residuales de una industria petroquímica

The wastewater treatment plant of the Morelos petrochemical complex is located in a tropical zone where both the ambient temperature and the high temperature of the air at the compressor outlet of the aeration system of the sludge treatment plant system cause the actual temperature conditions within the bioreactor to reach up to 41o C. The high temperatures have a negative effect on microorganism activity, oxygen transfer, and sludge settling properties, mainly. The effect of temperature on the modeling of wastewater treatment performance is seldom considered. In this paper, the effect of temperature on microorganism growth is considered in the carbon removal modeling. Based on this model, the behavior of the different parameters, such as biomass concentration (volatile suspended solids), both in the reactor and in the settler, and the dissolved oxygen in the reactor were evaluated at different recycle and wastage flow rates. In addition, based on these results, it is possible to change the operation condition by changing the flow rates, in order to move the operation to better operation zones, where power consumptions due to the aeration and pumping of the recirculation and waste flow rates are reduced at different times of the year. Moreover, the treated wastewater cumplies with the limits fixeb by current environmental laws.