TA- 1-6
MODELLING THE DYNAMICS OF A TRICKLING FILTER FOR
WASTE WATER TREATMENT
Torsten Wik
Control Engineering Laboratory
Chalmers University of Technology
S-41296 Gothenburg
Sweden
Abstract
This study concems the dynamics of the nitrifying efficiency of a
trickling filter for waste water treatment. In a novel approach, based
on minimum plant area usage, a filter will be placed after the second-
ary sedimentation tanks with recirculation to the activated sludge
process stage. The objective of the trickling filter model is to describe
the growth of the nitrifying bacteria Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter in
the bio-film. A steady state mass-balance model for the substrates in
the film based on Monod kinetics has been formulated. The dynamics
of the filter, or the “memory”, is described by a division of the film in
four volume fractions, Nitrosomonas, Nitrobacter, inert (non-active)
material and water. These fractions are calculated at different depths
of the film as well as for various layers of the filter StrUCtUTe. Data
from a pilot plant at Rya treatment plant in Gothenburg, Sweden, have
provided the necessary feedback for calculating model parameters,
verifying assumptions etc. A shooting and matching routine in the
NAG Fortran library is used for the solution of the model equations.
Simulations performed so far have indicated that it can take days and
even weeks for changes in the bacteria populations to take place. This
means that the working point for the proposed full scale filter at the
plant should track the past history of the filter.
Keywords: Process modelling, waste water treatment, trickling fil-
ter, biofilm, nitrification.
1. Introduction
Increasing demands for nitrogen removal from municipal waste
water have contributed to new process designs and plant configura-
tions. A pilot trickling filter is, since December 1990, connected to the
effluent from the Rya treatment plant in Gothenburg, Sweden. In the
proposed plant expansion with the design criterion: “higher capacity
with constant usage of land area ”, a full scale trickling filter will be
placed after the secondary sedimentation tanks with recirculation to
the activated sludge process stage. (Ste figure 1.1).
presettler activated sludge stage settling tanks
Figure 1.1. Proposed plant design (position 1) and present pilot plant
(position 2).
The operation of the pilot plant, figure 1.2, has been closely moni-
tored by the plant staff since its installation [ 11. Incoming water is
sprinkled at the top of the filter with a rotating device. Averdge values
for the test period: flow=680 m3d-I. temp=14 “C, nitrate=0.9 g N m?
0-7803-1872-2/94/$4.00 0 1994 E E E 1035
~~ ~
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ClaEs Lindeborg
, a”onia=19 g N m-3, total nitrogen=21 g N m-3, dcalinity=3.2
HC0-j- m-3 and COD=39 g 0 2 m-3.The tower (diameter 2.7 m, height
7.2m) is packed with a crossflow PVC-media with a very large surface
area, presently 226 m2/m3. A biofilm is gradually developed on the
exposed surfaces. The necessary oxygen for the nitrifying process will
pass up through the bed from four inlets at the bottom of the plant.
Liquid has been sampled from different levels of the filter in order to
study the concentration profiles in the bulk and the nitrification rate
inside the trickling filter.
rotary distributor 1 - 1
holes for test
sampling
air’ inlet
U inflow
-f
outflow
Figure 1.2. Schematic illustration of the pilot plant.
Laboratory analyses over long time periods show, as expected, that
the nitrification rate varies under different operating conditions. The
determining factors are not only the current concentrations, bulk flow,
temperature etc. but also how long time the plant has been operating
under these conditions. The purpose of the filter model is to study the
dynamic behaviour of the filter. This is done by dividing the biofilm
into four discrete volume fractions, i. e. Nitrosomonas, Nitrobacter,
inert (non-active) material and water, and by describing the growth of
these fractions. The fractions are calculated at different penetration
depths of the film as well as for various heights of the filter tower. Data
assembled from the pilot plant has been used for verifying assump-
tions, calculating model parameters etc.
A number of simulations have been made in order to identify the
key conditions for an efficient operation of the filter. Some examples:
(1) The nitrite concentrations as a function of the flow through the fil-
ter. They indicate that this nondesirable by-product of the filter pro-
cess has an optimum for a certain flow; (2) Step response in the bulk
flow leading to changing volume fractions of the bacteria populations.
The nitrification rate profile (in the vertical direction) will be affected
up to 20 days after the step. This implies a long term dynamical beha-
viour of the filter; (3) Response from a step change in the ammonia
concentration. Wik has given a more detailed description of the back-
ground of the model, experimental data and the parameters selected
[2]. This work has been done within the Gothenburg Consortium of
the STAMP-project (Control of waste water treatment plants new -
methods and process technology). The programme is administrated by
NUTEK (National Swedish Agency for Industrial Developments).
 2. Nitrification in biofilms
The basic phenomena involved in biofilm reactors of this type have
been well described by Awin er al. 131 and are visualized in figure 2 . I .
The biofilm is attached to the substratum and its surface is continu-
ously exposed by the downward flowing bulk liquid. Within the bio-
film, organisms are being maintained by the substrate transformations
they are carrying out. Diffusion can be considered to be the main proc-
ess for transportation of the substrates both i n the biofilm and in the
liquid film that develops on the biofilm surface. The biofilm surface is
continuously eroding at the same time as particles and organisms
existing in the liquid are being adsorbed on the biofilm. The necessary
gas exchange occurs at the interface between the water and the air.
-
eichange
air
Figure 2.1. Basic phenomena in the biofilm.
A model describing this kind of process can be made exceedingly
complex. Most of the phenomena occurring like the adsorption, the
erosion, the dynamic behaviour of the bacteria and inhibitative effects
due to chemicals in the water are difficult to describe mathematically
and many of them can not be explicitly measured. Despite these cotn-
plications it may very well be possible to achieve important results
from modelling by making simplifying assumptions and comparing
modelling data with the results from e.g. a pilot plant.
The nitrifying organisms are usually generalized into the two dif-
ferent groups of bacteria, Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter. Nitro-
somonas is carrying out the oxidation of ammonia to nitrite and
Nitrobacter then further oxidizes the nitrite to nitrate.
Theoretically, the oxidization of one ammonium ion into one nitrite
ion results in a production of two protons. This agrees completely with
the observed decrease of alkalinity for the pilot plant, which in aver-
age was 2.0 consumed bicarbonate ions for each nitrified ammonia
ion. Combining d e alkalinity consumption with the stochiometry for
the two transformations found by Wezemak et al. [4] gives the follow-
ing simplified reaction formula for Nitrosomonas
2 Si = bulk concenuation of rate limiting substrate.
IgN - NH,+ + 3.22g0, + - m o l e H C O ; + IgN - N O ; +
14
CO, + H z O +biomass (2.1)
and for Nitrobacter
1gN - N O ; + 1.1 l g 0 , -+ 1 g N - NO; +biomass (2.2)
The latter reaction is performed at a much higher rate than the
former. and in most models for nitrification it is assumed to be instant.
This results in the following simplified formula for the total reaction:
2 strate concenuations in the bulk and at the support, independently of
I g N - N H , + + 4 . 3 3 g 0 2 + - m o l e HCO; + l g N - N O ; +
14
CO, + H,O + biomass (2.3)
In many cases though, restrictions on nitrite emissions must be
observed and nimte also affects biological processes that occur after
the trickling filter. In such cases the nitrification should bedivided into
the two separate oxidations.
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In general. a Monod expression is used to describe the transforma-
tion for the complete oxidization of ammonia (2.3). It is a convenient
way of describing a transition from a first order reaction to a reaction
of zero order with increasing substrate concentration. The rate expres-
sion is then set to
(2.4)
where
rv = substrate production rate per u n i t volume
pm= maximum growth rate.
Y = yield coefficient for the active bacteria.
,X , = density of active biofilm.
K, = monod saturation coefficient.
Si = substrate concentration.
Fick's first law of diffusion in one dimension is assumed to
describe the transportation of substrate inside the film. i.e.
where
(2.5)
J i = substrate flow.
x = distance from support media.
D';= molecular diffusion coefficient in the biofilm.
Only one dimension has to be considered since the substrate gradi-
ents in the direction of increasing film depth are much larger than in
the direction of the bulk flow. Due to diffusion, the concentrations of
the reactants will decrease and the concentrations of products will
increase with increasing distance from the biofilm surface. For nitrite
which is an intermediate product, the concennation profile can not be
given any generalized appearance.
If the biofilm is thick and the nimfication is assumed to be of zero
order then one of the substrates will reach zero concentration at the
biofilm support [ 5 ] . The substrate for which this occurs can be defined
as the rate limiting substrate. A penetration depth is then defined as the
depth at which the concentration of the rate limiting substrate reaches
zero. A change of rate limiting substrate will occur when two sub-
strates have the same penetration depth which can be calculated from
where
v 6. = stochiomemc coefficient in ( 2 . 3 )
Jn = nitrification rate.
The relations between the bulk concentrations for the reactants in
(2.3) can now be calculated for the transitions from one substrate
being rate limiting to another. (See figure 2.2).
However, if a Monod expression is used, none of the concentra-
tions will reach zero, but at least one substrate concentration will be
very close. Since we are only considering the steady state concentra-
tion profiles in the biofilm, the following relation will hold for the sub-
which kinetics are used:
D'i D'
-(S,
"i -s@) = 1'
v I. (S.-S
I n.1
)
where SW.; =substrate concentration at the substratum
 mole HCO; carbon dioxide and water. This transformation is known to require
s 0 2 oxygen [ 141.
t N-NH4+
ammonia limitation
3.7
g N-NH,+ 3. Inactivation of the organisms, i.e. a pure conversion to inert
material.
For the expression describing the growth of Nitrosomonas, a triple
Monod expression has been chosen with respect to ammonia, oxygen
.23 and alkalinity as in IAWPRC model no.1 for active sludge processes.
The alkalinity expression has been included to take into account the
alkalinity oxygen dependence of pH which of course could be described in several dif-
limitation limitation
I I
0.063
- mole HCO;
g 02
ferent ways. When a complete comparison with data from a pilot plant
is performed, different expressions for describing this dependence
should be investigated. As for the growth of Nitrobacter, a double
Figure 2.2. Approximate bulk concentration ratios for rate limiting Monod expression with respect to oxygen and nitrite has been chosen.
substrate at 2OOC. For the endogen respiration simple Monod expressions with respect to
oxygen are used for both types of bacteria.
By defining the rate limiting substrate as the one for which The total growth rate for the fractions of solid material can now be
D',S, ,./vi has the smallest value the same relations as deduced from formulated as
(2.6)will hold even if the reaction is not of zero order. This altemative
definition might cause some minor discontinuites in the nitrification
rate. Even so, it follows that the transitions between rate limiting sub-
strates are basically independent of the kinetics used when the film is
thick.
3. Themodel
In biofilms there exist a variety of different organisms living on
various transformations of the available substrates. Besides the organ- rvs,2 = p m2 p E K S , , + S 1 A-
K , , +S,
isms, there also exist inert material and liquid. The organisms are
competing for space and substrates. Since the different bacterias gain
differently depending on the prevailing conditions, the distribution of
the organisms will be a function of time, depth in film and level in the
trickling filter. This leads to varying transformation rates and hence
also a dynamic behaviour for the total efficiency of the filter. Fruhen rvs.3 = k,P,E, +k,P,E2
et al. [6] illustrated the importance of the dynamic behaviour of the
biofilm in the case of a competition between heterotrophic bacteria and the production rates for the substrates become
and autotrophic bacteria. Other models describing a dynamic behav- Sl s2 s3
iour in biofilms have been reported [7 - lo]. All these models focus on r v , , = - -VI1
p P E
Y, ml1 K s. I +SI K S . 2 +s2 K s , 3 +s3
the competition between heterotrophic bacteria transforming organic
material and nitrifying autotrophic bacteria. None of them consider
the dependence on the alkalinity or pH for the nitrifying bacteria
[11 - 131. The model [7) developed by Kissel et d.is the only one in
which both Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter are modelled. The compe-
tition between Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter is different from the
(3.4)
competition between heterotrophic and autotrophic bacteria since the
existence of Nitrosomonas can be considered to be. a necessity for the
existence of Nitrobacter at the same time as they are competing for
space and oxygen in the film. In the case of heterotrophic and
autotrophic bacteria none of the organisms can be considered to be a
necessity for the other.
In our case the concentration of inorganic material is naturally very
low since the trickling filter is connected to the effluent from the entire
plant. Data from the pilot plant showed no correlation between the
COD concentration and the nitrification rate. Hence, the heterotrophic
bacteria are not taken into consideration in this model.
Following the general idea for biofilm modelling outlined by Gujer
and Wanner [lo] the biofilm is assumed to consist of four different
fractions, i.e. Nitrosomonas. Nitrobacter, inert material and water. (3.7)
Inert material is not only dead material but also all material that does
not interfere with the nitrification process. Only the diffusion of The growth of the fractions of solid material causes a transporta-
ammonia, oxygen, bicarbonate and nitrite are considered and assumed tion of solid material from the substratum towards the biofilm surface
to follow Fick's first law in one dimension. The accumulation of nitro- at a velocity vs. The mass flow of each fraction can then be expressed
gen and oxygen in the biofilm is neglected. All phases and fractions as
within the film are assumed to be continuous.
The following three processes are assumed to describe the bacterial J ,i = VsP;E; i = 1,2,3 (3.8)
transformations: A mass balance for component i over a film segment ax gives
1. Growth of the bacteria due to the transformations of substrate
according to (2.1) and (2.2). aEi
2. Endogen respiration, i. e. a mineralisation of the organisms to
pj.z z -ax2 ~. + r
S. I .
VS. I
i = 1,2,3 (3.9)

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 By using the fact that E&, = 1 - E , , where E, is the volume frac- the bulk to the biofilm surface through a liquid film of thickness L j
tion of liquid in the film, dividing (3.9) by p,. inserting (3.8) and sum- the second boundary condition will be
ming over all fractions, v5 can be determined from

If the concentration gradient in the liquid film is neglected. the con-

For the substrates the corresponding mass balance to (3.9) gives centration at the biofilm surface will simply be the same as the bulk
concentration. which is the boundary condition that has been used in
the simulations. The bulk concentrations for all substrates except ox!-
i = 1,2,3,4 (3.11)
gen will be given by the concentrations at the inlet of the trickling fil-
ter and (3.15). The bulk concentration of oxygen is more complicated
If vf is the velocity of the biofilm surface the thickness of the film
to estimate. Since the oxygen in the bulk mainly comes from the gas
varies according to
exchange at the interface between the liquid and the air. the bulk is
(3.12) close to saturated, but not entirely. Studies of the oxygen concenua-
tion in the bulk for the pilot plant showed that the bulk was closest to
The velocity can be determined as saturation at the inlet and at the outlet, i.e. the inlet for the air. For good
estimations of the oxygen Concentration in the filter, the model should
(3.13)
take into account the consumtion of oxygen in the upward air stream,
and the downwards transpcFation of oxygen in the bulk liquid. One
where cri is the rate that component i is transferred from the liquid problem will then be that the complete model becomes fully implicit.
to the surface, i.e. a sum of erosion (negative), shear loss (negative) In the simulations. the bulk has been assumed to be saturated in the
and adsorption (positive). If we assume a uniform erosion and shear entire filter. Finally for solving the concentration profiles we need to
loss, which only depend on the thickness of the film and the flow of
know the distribution of the fractions and the biofilm thickness for
the bulk liquid, (3.13) simplifies to
each element. Initial conditions for the distributions and for the film
vr = lJ,( L ) - f ( k Q ) f'0 (3.14) thickness must therefore be provided.
The equivalent of the function f has been modelled as f = hL' by
Wanner and Gujer [8]. The function f should also depend on the flow
of the bulk liquid. Evidence for this is shown from parts of the plastic
media becoming bare as a result of an uneven distribution of the water
from the distributor when the first cross flow media was tested in the
pilot plant. This occurred as expected where the flow had been too
intense.
Analyses of the residence time distribution for the pilot plant
showed that plug flow is a reasonable assumption. The trickling filter
can then be finely divided into Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor
(CSTR) elements. A mass balance for each element gives

i = 2.3,4 (3.15)
where A,= the surface area of the biofilm in filter element n.
V,= the volume of the liquide in Nter element fi.

The characteristic times for (3.1 1) and (3.15) are around days
and for (3.9) of the size 10 days. This means that the concentration
profiles in the film and in the bulk are established within minutes for
a certain film composition and set of concentrations in the incoming
water to the lilter, while it takes weeks for the bacteria distribution to
establish. As a consequence a simultaneous solution of (3.9). (3.15)
and (3.1 1) is a very stiff system of differential equations. By using the
fact that we are only interested of the long term behaviour of the filter.
i.e. days and weeks, we can assume that the concentration profiles are
established instantly which reduces (3.11) to an ordinary differential
equation and (3.15) to an algebraic expression. I n the simulation pro-
gram. (3.15) is used in explicit form to shorten the computation time.
To solve the concentration profiles within the film for each ele-
ment, (2.5) has to be combined with (3.11). now in stady state,
together with (3.4). (3.3, (3.6) and (3.7). This results in a system of
non-linear second order Ordinary Differential Equations (ODE) and
hence two boundary conditions are needed. The first one comes from
the fact that no substrates flow into the support media and hence the
INDEX 1 1 2 3 4

derivatives must be zero at the substrstum. SOLIDS I Niuoromons 1 Niuobacier Inen

dS,(O) = 0 i = 1, 2, 3 , 4 (3.16)
dx
If the flow is assumed to be laminar and the substrates diffuse from

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 4. The numerical methods
To solve the system of equations describing the dynamics of the
biofilm and hence the dynamics of the entire filter, the steady state
concentration profiles within the fdm have to be solved for each time
step. The nonlinear second order ordinary differential equations des-
cribing the concentration profiles can not be solved by any standard
integration method since there is one boundary condition at each end
of the independent variable. A suitable method for solving this pro-
blem is to use a shooting and matching method. Starting at the subsua-
tum the missing boundary conditions, i.e. the substrate concentrations
at the wall, are estimated and then a suitable integration method is
used to get the solution at the biofilm surface (shooting). Comparing
the solution for the concentrations at the surface with the given boun-
dary conditions, a new set of concentrations at the support is estimated
to get a solution closer to the boundary conditions at the surface (mat-
ching). In general, a Newton based iteration method is used to mini-
mize the residuals between the given boundary conditions and the
solution vector. This type of routine is available in e.g. the NAG
Fortran library [ 151 (routine DO2 SAS). The routine requires that the
problem is formulated as a first order ODE. Therefore the problem has
to be converted in such a way. In order to facilitate the numerical solu-
tion, it is recommendable to also scale the problem so that the error
limits can be used in a more straightforward way.
The dynamics of the film is described by the distribution of the dif-
ferent fractions within the film which are defined by (3.8), (3.9), and
(3.10) together with the process rates. In order to have better control
over the computation time, the method used by Kissel er al. [7] is used
for the simulation. The film is discretisized into elements of equiva-
lent length. The volume fractions are assumed to be constant on each
interval. For each time step taken, an Adams-Bashforth method up to
fourth order is used to evaluate the growth for all volume fractions,
except the water fraction, using the process rates (3.1), (3.2) and (3.3)
evaluated in the middle of the elements. The volume of each film ele-
ment is then normalized to unity and allowed to expand with its sum,
consequently causing a flow of solid material from the substratum to
the film surface. Depending on the depth of the film at next time step
a new division of the film into elements is made. The new values for
the volume fractions are calculated as the values in the middle of each
element estimated by a cubic spline function adapted to the earlier
nodal values. Since the dynamics of the fractions is very slow, time
steps of magnitude 0.1 d to 0.2 d may very well be used.
DO2 SAS depends, like most iterative routines, on good start esti-
mates of the parameters to be evaluated. When the simulation is run-
ning, the start values for the wall concentrations at each time step is
chosen to be the solution for those concentrations at the former time
step. However, for the start of the simulation, a different way of fin-
ding good estimates must be used. In most cases, oxygen is the rate
limiting substrate at the inlet of the mckling filter which means that
for the first filter element, the oxygen concentration at the substratum
will be close to zero. By setting the Nitrobacter concentration to zero,
the wall concentrations for all the other substrates can be estimated
with (2.7) and together with the oxygen concentration set to zero are
these used as starting values for the first filter element. The solution is
then used as the starting values for the next element and so on. Itera-
tively. the Nitrobacter concentration is then increased to the desired
value. The solution from each iteration is used as the starting values
for the next element. Each time the conditions for the trickling filter
are changed, an iterative process which do not update the fractions is
used until the solution for the new conditions has been reached. The
methods for finding good starting values when using a shooting and
matching routine can naturally be refined much further and conse-
quently the simulation time will be shortened. A simulation of two
weeks, with only a few changes in the operation conditions, will take
approximately five minutes on a SUN workstation. By using a known
steady state solution for a certain combination of operating condi-
tions, the start up of a simulation can be facilitated.
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5. Simulations
There are several questions concerning the operation of the trick-
ling filter which it is our intention to study through a number of simu-
lations. The queries can be divided into two groups, one dealing with
the performance of the filter as a function of current conditions such
as flow, concentrations and temperature and the other conceming the
long term dynamics of the filter. An example of the first type is simu-
lation of the nitrite concentration in the filter effluent as a function of
the flow. Nitrite in the effluent is even less desirable than ammonia,
sinre it affects many of the biological processes taking place in nature
as well as after the recirculation. Data from the pilot plant show that
on several occasions, the concentration at the outlet from the main
plant amounts to several g N-N02/m3 and hence cannot be neglected.
The concentration of nitrite at the inlet of the filter is in general close
to zero while the ammonia concentration is large. This of course
favours Nitrosomonas in the upper part of the filter which causes a net
production of nitrite. As the nimte concentration increases further
down in the filter, Nitrobacter is favoured more and more. Since the
ammonia concentration and alkalinity also decrease this suppresses
Nitrosomonas even further, making the transformations performed by
Nitrobacter faster than those transformed by Nitrosomonas, i.e. there
will be a net consumption of nitrite in the lower regions of the filter.
However, the higher the flow, the larger the ammonia concentration
and the alkalinity become in the lower regions. A net consumption
might therefore never take place. (See figure 5.1).
I
1
prred rurlace area In2
Figure 5.1. The nitrite concentration in the filter vs passed surface area
of biofilm at Q=500,1000 and 1500 m3d-’.
The long term dynamics of the filter behaviour is illustrated by two
step responses. In both simulations the filter is divided into 25 ele-
ments. The film is further divided into 10 film elements and the liquid
fraction is assumed to be 0.3 in the entire film. The film is assumed to
undergo a uniform erosion “shaving” of all material further than 0.7
mm from the substratum. A film depth of more than 0.7 mm would not
change the results significantly since very little happens closest to the
substratum when the film has reached that thickness.
The first simulation is a step in the flow from 5 I/s to 20 Vs at 2OoC
with the following concentrations in to the filter held constant: S2=20,
S3=3 and S 4 4 . Before the step in flow, oxygen was rate limiting in
the upper regions of the filter, alkalinity in the middle and ammonia in
the lowest regions. After the step, oxygen was rate limiting in the
entire filter. The steady state distributions of the volume fractions in
the film before and after the step for the last filter element are illustra-
ted in figure 5.2b and 5 . 2 ~ where it can be clearly seen how the bac-
teria concentrations in the film increase when the substrate
concentration increases due to the higher flow. The volume fractions
in the first filter element, illustrated in figure 5.2a. will not undergo
any change since the bulk concentrations do not change there.
Immediately as the flow is increased, there will be an increase in
the overall nitrification rate for the filter due to the short term dyna-
mics that are assumed to be instant in this model. This is followed by
a slow increase of the nitrification rate as the bacteria concentrations
 1 I
c\
, : u;;i’r4
dirlmcc from ruppn media nx104
!
-j
Figure 5.2. The steady state distributions for the volume fractions.
a)First element before and after step. b) Last element before step.
c) Last element after step. (ns=Nitrosomonas, nb=Nitrobacter)
in the film increase.(See figure 5.3a). The bacteria concentrations
increase especially in the lower regions and hence also the nitrification
rate.(See figure. 5.3b). The settling time T10%for the nitrification rate
is 7 days based on the level before the step. If the settling time is based
on the level immidiately after the step, it will be 8.6 days.
mmhmm ne rvlnevla RIC
gNm’k’
Figure 5.3. Step (flow) responses for the nitrification rate. a) The
overall rate. b) The profiles for the nitrification rate inside the filter at
time t=O. 0+,1. 2, ....9.10 and 20 days.
The second simulation is a step in the ammonia concentration from
10 to 30g N-NHq/m3at a temperature of 20’:. and with the following
variables held constant: Q=lO Us,S3=3 and S4=0. Before the step,
ammonia was rate limiting in the lower regions of the filter, but after
the increase in ammonia concentration at the inlet to the filter, oxygen
was rate limiting in the entire filter. The step response for the overall
nitrification rate and the profiles for the local nitrification rate are
illustrated in figure 5.4. This simulation is in principle what will hap-
rum6~urnmuc .U”L.lan nr
, Nnk’
p’”d ,uIf.<c arc2
a) ton<
w- b)
Figure 5.4. Step (ammonia concentration) responses for the nitrifi-
cation rate. a) The overall nitrification rate. b) The protiles for the rate
inside the filter at time t=O.O+,l. 2, ....9.10 and 20 days.
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pen when a longer period of rain is suddenly followed by a longer
period of no rain. To maintain the flow in the filter. the reflux is
increased which also will increase the substrate concentrations. A
simulation of an increase in alkalinity gives very similar results if
alkalinity limitation prevails before the increase. since ammonia and
alkalinity play the same role in this model.
It is noteworthy how the nimfication rate changes in the first fitter
element in this case.. Since oxygen, which does not change, is the rate
limiting substrate in the upper regions of the filter during the entire
simulation, the change in nitrification rate is small. The settling times
for this step are the same as in the former simulation. As a fact, the
settling times are mainly dependant on the temperature. The higher
the temperature, the faster the dynamics of the filter will be.
6. Conclusions
The trickling filter is a very complex process with many phe-
nomina which is difficult to describe mathematically. By making
assumptions, based on experimental data from the pilot plant, it has
been possible to model the behaviour of the variables. It is our belief
that the simulation work can continue, aiming at better understanding
of the full scale filter. An important aspect of this work is that the PI-0-
posed filter will function in a different process structure than the pilot
plant filter.
Some possible improvements of the procedures have been identi-
fied. The first one is the introduction of an oxygen profile for the bulk
flow. The second one is the speed of the calculations. However, this is,
at this stage of the project, no limitation for our work. The few cases
of numerical difficulties experienced so far, have easily been solved
by changing the border lines of the filter elements.
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