Increasing oxygen transfer efficiency through sorption enhancing strategies

Abstract The link between aeration efficiency and biosorption capacity in water resource recovery facilities was extensively investigated, with special emphasis on wastewater characteristics and the development of strategies to maximize adsorption. Biosorption of oxygen transfer inhibitors (i.e., surfactants, colloidal, and soluble fractions) was examined by a series of pilot batch-scale experiments and full-scale studies. The impact of a sorption-enhancing strategy (i.e., bioaugmentation) deployed at full-scale over a five-year period was evaluated. Bench-scale experiments determined the inhibition coefficient (Ki) to measure the impact of surfactants and COD fractions as inhibitors of oxygen transfer efficiencies (αSOTE) in wastewater systems. The inhibition constant for surfactants Ki was found at 2.4 ± 0.4 mg L−1 SDS while for colloidal material was at 14 ± 1 mg L−1 (no inhibition for soluble fraction was found). Two enhancing biosorption configurations (i.e., contact stabilization and anaerobic selector) resulted in significant improvements in both aeration efficiency indicators (αSOTE) and surfactants removals. αSOTE improvements of 46% and 54% in comparison to conventional high rate activated sludge process (HRAS) were reported. Similarly, the removal of surfactants was increased by 27% and 56% using optimized enhancing-sorption strategies. Further analyses helped elucidate the underlying mechanisms of surfactants removal. Findings are expected to help full-scale applications increase their sorption potential as well as the concurrent aeration efficiency, which helps WRRFs to advance toward energy-positive wastewater treatments.