7/11/2014 Lesson 4: The Activated Sludge Process

Lesson 4:

The Activated Sludge Process

Objective

In this lesson we will answer the following questions:

How are microorganisms used most efficiently to treat wastewater?

How do you calculate the amount of sludge to return to the aeration basin?

Reading Assignment

Along with the online lecture, read Chapter 3 in Wastewater Microbiology.

Lecture

Microorganisms

Secondary Treatment

Microorganisms are an essential part of the wastewater treatment process. They are added to the
aeration chamber and allowed to digest organic matter in the water. Then they are removed in the
clarifier. Some of the microorganisms from the clarifier are added back to the aeration basin to
start the process over again. The use of microorganisms to remove dissolved organic materials
from the water is a form of secondary treatment of the wastewater.

Activated Sludge

The sludge from the clarifier is not simply piped back into the aeration basin. Instead, the sludge
must be aged and stressed, or activated. Each day's sludge (also known as floc) is pumped out of
the clarifier and into a holding basin. There, it is added to the top of the previous day's sludge, as
shown below. The sludge is allowed to age for ten days before it is pumped as seed to the aeration
chamber.

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The 10 days which sludge is aged is very important. Aging stresses the sludge. Without any food,
the microorganisms in the sludge become very hungry. As a result, when they are added to the
aeration chamber, they are ready to feed again and are able to reduce the B.O.D. in the water in a
short period of time. Stressing the microorganisms also prompts them to multiply rapidly. This
results in even more microorganisms to quickly eat up the organic matter in the wastewater.
Packaged plants and extended aeration plants are both able to remove B.O.D. in about two hours
or less because of the aged sludge used. The aged sludge provides optimum food removal and
results in a good quality effluent.

Sludge Composition

You can tell what type of microorganisms are found in sludge by looking at the sludge under a
microscope. For example, if you were to look at the organisms found in sludge of various ages
under a microscope at 400 power, it might look like this:

Note the rotifers, large aerobic microorganisms found in old sludge. Sludge of the right age has a
few rotifers in it, but young sludge has none and old sludge has too many.
Conditions other than age will also influence the composition of the sludge. As you can see in the

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picture below, low pH, high grease, low nitrogen, and low phosphorus conditions will result in
foaming sludge with few rotifers.

Anaerobic organisms are also present in sludge. The picture below shows anaerobic organisms
which will produce good settleability of sludge.

All of the cells in the picture above are of the same cell type. Sticky enzymes on the cells cause
them to clump together, as you can see, which will make them settle out well in the clarifier.

Calculations

Food to Microorganism Ratio

The number of microorganisms which are used to seed the aeration chamber is carefully controlled
and is based on the food to microorganism ratio (F/M ratio). Microorganisms will most
efficiently break down the organic matter in water if they are present in the right proportion.

To illustrate this concept, let's consider a similar situation in which you are feeding hamburgers to
hungry football players. If you give 100 hamburgers to 10 hungry football players, many of the
hamburgers will remain uneaten. In contrast, if you give 10 hamburgers to 100 hungry football
players, the football players will fight over the hamburgers. The hamburgers are likely to get torn to
pieces during the fight and will remain uneaten. The perfect hamburger to football player ratio is 1 -
if you have 100 hungry football players and 100 hamburgers, the football players will not fight over
the food and will quickly consume all of the hamburgers.
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The food to microorganism ratio follows the same concept. If the appropriate food to
microorganism ratio is followed, then there will be efficient B.O.D. removal in the aerator. One
manufacturer, Clow, suggests that the best food to microorganism ratio is about 0.6.

Based on the food to microorganism ratio, some sludge is sent to the aeration basin from the
clarifier while the rest of the sludge is sent to waste. The sludge re-circulation rate is controlled by a
pump and valve combination. The valve can be opened or closed as needed in order to secure the
optimum food to microorganism ratio.

Calculating the F/M Ratio

In order to calculate the proper amount of microorganisms to be added to the aeration basin, you
will need to use the following formula:

(For the units of the formula to cancel out, you should be aware that the F/M ratio has no units and
the constant, 8.34, actually has the units "lb/(MGD × mg/L)".) The formula for the F/M ratio can
also be simplified as:

So let's calculate the pounds of microbes which need to be added to the aeration basin of a plant
over the span of a day. The plant has a capacity (or flow) of 18,000 gallons per day. The B.O.D
of the water is 200 mg/L. You want to achieve a F/M ratio of 0.6. To determine the pounds of
microbes, first you must make sure that all of the units match. You should notice that you have a
flow rate of 18,000 gallons/day while you need your flow to have the units MGD. So you will
need to convert the units:

Now all of your units match and you can simply plug the numbers into the formula:

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So you will need to add 50.04 pounds of microbes to the aeration basin for the day.

Returned Activated Sludge

But how do you add 50.04 lbs of microbes to the aeration basin? You do not have pure microbes
available. Instead, you have a mixture of sludge and microbes from the clarifier. This mixture is
known as Returned Activated Sludge or RAS.

RAS has some typical properties. When dried, 100 grams of RAS weighs 5 grams. When
cooked at 550°C, 100 grams of RAS weighs 3 grams. And, most importantly for our calculations,
2% of RAS is microbes. So, if you have 100 grams of RAS, 2 grams of this is made up of
microbes.

Using this last property, we can make a formula to determine how much RAS to feed in order to
provide a given amount of microbes:

Using this formula, we can determine how much RAS we need to feed into the aeration basin for
the situation we discussed in the last section:

So, we need to feed 2,502 pounds of returned activated sludge into the aeration basin each day.

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Feed Rate

Of course, to set the feed rate, you are likely to need to know the pounds of RAS to feed per
minute, or the grams of RAS to feed per minute rather than the pounds per day. These feed rates
are easily calculated using conversions you are already familiar with:

So you would set the feed rate to 789 grams per minute. How do you set the feed rate of the
pump? You will need a container to collect the sludge being pumped into the aeration basin.

First, you weigh this container. The weight of the container is known as the tare weight.

Next, put this container under the pipe which pumps sludge into the aeration basin. Turn on the
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pump and allow the pump to run for one minute. Then turn off the pump and remove the container.

Third, weigh the container and the sludge filling it. This is known as the total weight.

Now you are ready to calculate how much sludge was pumped during the minute you measured.

Total Weight (g) - Tare Weight (g) = Sludge Weight (g)

1190 g - 400 g = Sludge Weight
790 g = Sludge Weight

So the pump rate is 790 grams per minute, which is the optimal feed rate we calculated above.

If the feed rate was greater than the calculated rate, then you would need to lower the volume of
sludge being pumped. If the feed rate was less than the calculated rate, then you would need to
raise the volume of sludge being pumped. Continue weighing the amount of sludge the pump is
pumping until it reaches the optimal feed rate you have calculated.

To make sure that you have reached the optimum F/M ratio, try increasing the pump feed rate
slightly. Then measure the B.O.D. of the effluent water from the aeration chamber. If the B.O.D.
has raised, then you should lower the feed rate. If the B.O.D. has lowered, then you should
continue raising the feed rate. You can continue raising or lowering the pump feed rate until the
B.O.D. in the effluent water has reached the minimum value. Now you have found the optimum
F/M ratio and the optimum amount of RAS to feed into the aeration basin.

Wasted Sludge

It is very easy to calculate how much sludge will be pumped to waste each day.

Sludge wasted = (Sludge made per day) - (RAS)

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So, if the amount of sludge made each day is 5,000 lb and the amount of sludge returned to the
aeration basin is 2,502 pounds, then the amount of sludge wasted is:

Sludge wasted = 5,000 lb - 2,502 lb

Sludge wasted = 2,498 lb

Review
The organic matter in wastewater is broken down by microorganisms in the aerator. The
microorganisms are removed from the wastewater when they settle out as sludge in the clarifier.
The microorganisms are then activated by being aged for ten days. Finally, they are reintroduced
to the wastewater in the aerator.

The amount of microbes to be reintroduced in the aeration basin is based on the food to
microorganism ratio (F/M ratio). Several calculations have to be made in order to add the correct
amount of microorganisms to the aeration basin. First, the number of pounds of microbes is
calculated using the following formula and a F/M ratio of 0.6:

Next, the amount of RAS (Returned Activated Sludge) is determined using the formula below:

Then the feed rate of the pump is set using the following formula:

Total Weight (g) - Tare Weight (g) = Sludge Weight (g)

Finally, you can determine the amount of sludge which is sent to waste using the following formula:

Sludge wasted = (Sludge made per day) - (RAS)

Assignments

Complete Assignment 4 on Activated Sludge Calculations. may do the Assignment online to get
credit or print it out and send it to the instructor.
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Lab

There are no labs associated with this lesson.

Quiz
Answer the questions in the Lesson 4 quiz . When you have gotten all the answers correct, print
the page and either mail or fax it to the instructor. You may also take the quiz online and directly
submit it into the database for a grade.

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