• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.329-336
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• 2013

This study was conducted to reduce excess sludge generation by recycling of return sludge to the aeration tank after solubilization by electric field charger and ultrasonifier. The return sludge was purposely broken-up to the ratio of $SCOD_{Cr}/TCOD_{Cr}$ at 0.1, 0.2, and 0.3, which was tested along with control (i.e., untreated). Solubilized sludge was subsequently treated in a bench-scaled conventional activated sludge reactor. According to varying $SCOD_{Cr}/TCOD_{Cr}$ ratios, TSS in the reactor was correspondingly increased from 129 to 219 mg/L and $TCOD_{Cr}$ was also from 257 to 335 mg/L. However, TSS in the effluent was nevertheless kept lower at below 30 mg/L and $TCOD_{Cr}$ was also unvaryingly below 40 mg/L. For $SCOD_{Cr}/TCOD_{Cr}$ = 0.3, the amount of excess sludge produced was at the highest decreased up to as high as 78%.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.905-912
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• 2006

In this paper, simulation methods of the system dynamics model developed by Das et al. (1997) for activated-sludge wastewater treatment plants are illustrated in an attempt to determine the operating rules and the policies related to capacity expansion of an activated-sludge wastewater treatment plant. For existing conditions, the analyses were performed by varying activated-sludge return rate to observe changes in effluent water quality and treatment efficiency. The effluent water quality is also analyzed for various average daily inflow conditions and activated-sludge return rates. As a result, without expanding the aeration tank, maximum average daily inflow that can satisfy the effluent water quality standard of BOD $0.02kg/m^3$ was determined as $2,840m^3/hr$, subject to 100% of activated-sludge return rate while other factors remain constant. When the activated-sludge return rate is less than 100%, expansion of the aeration tank is necessary and minimum sizes of the aeration tank to satisfy the effluent water quality standard were determined for various activated-sludge return rates. In addition, the total operating and maintenance as well as unit treatment cost regression equations for activated-sludge wastewater treatment plants are suggested by using the cost data that are obtained from Water and Wastewater Division, Ministry of Environment. The regression analyses showed that the economies of scale phenomena exist in the operating and maintenance costs of activated-sludge wastewater treatment plants.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.171-178
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• 2013

In this study, the sludge that occurs in the initial operation of coagulation system developed for the treatment of CSOs were returned to the flocculation reactor. The purposes of this study were to analyze the Characteristics of flocs that are generated through the recycling sludge and settling characteristics of sludge, and to evaluate the possibility that high concentrations of particulate matter in the initial inflow of CSOs could be used as an weighted coagulant additive. As a result, the concentration of treated CSOs pollutants at the beginning of the CSOs influent with a large amount of particulate matter over 20 ${\mu}m$ was low, after gradually increasing the concentrations of them. The flocs generated from the sludge return were similar in size compared to flocs generated through injection of micro sands, and settling velocity in case of return sludge injection was decreased from 55.1 cm/min to 21.5 cm/min. SVI value of the sludge accumulated at the bottom of the sedimentation tank was 72, and settled sludge volume decreased rapidly due to the consolidation of sludge to the time it takes to 10 minutes. these mean that sludge used for recycling has good settling characteristic. A condition of returned sludge which is 0.1% return of 0.3% extraction was formed in the balance of settlement and extraction. In this case, This condition was to be adequate to maintain the proper concentration such as 100~200 mg/L of TS and 50~100 mg/L of VS in the flocculation reactor. The usage of the return sludge containing particulate matters of CSOs as an weighted coagulant additive was able to secure a stable treated water quality despite the change of influent water quality dynamically. Furthermore, it can be expected to reduce the alum dosage along with the sludge production.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.73-80
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• 2018

In this study, the solids removal characteristics using T-P sludge generated from PACl coagulation were analyzed by laboratory scale and full scale experiment. As the amounts of T-P sludge injection into the raw sewage influent increased at the rate of 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 %, the suspended solids concentrations after 20 minutes setting test decreased to 210, 137, 91, 64, 43 mg/L, respectively. The filtration time required for dewatering test of the raw sewage influent decreased to 982, 728, 658, 581, 492 sec for 0, 1, 2, 3, 4% of T-P sludge injection, respectively. As the amounts of PACl coagulant into the effluent from final setting tank increased at 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 mg/L, the required filtration times for T-P sludge increased into 12.3, 41.7, 53.7, 67.2, 79.5 sec and the dewaterability of T-P sludge decreased. After T-P sludge returned into the primary settling tank on J-si sewage treatment plants, the effluent concentrations of COD, SS, T-N and T-P from primary settling tank into bioreactor decreased by 35.9, 27.9, 22.2, and 52.6% due to the coagulation effects of the T-P sludge. Finally, it was found that the return of T-P sludge into the primary settling tank could result into the sludge reduction having a lower water content of 3.03% p than in case of the only T-P sludge dehydration.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.857-865
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• 2006

The submerged barrier, employed in a reactor, divided a reactor into sludge settling zone and mixing zone according to flow type. In spite of mixing in the mixing zone, the lower part of sludge settling zone than the top of barrier was in a steady flow due to the barrier, which prevented the turbulent flow, produced from the mixing zone, from being diffused into the sludge settling zone. Therefore, the sludges in the mixing zone flowed backward over the barrier into the upper part of the sludge settling zone by turbulent flow and settled down in the sludge settling zone by the force of gravity. When barrier/water level ratio was 0.5, most sludges almost did not settle down in tile sludge settling zone because the sludges were directly affected by the turbulent flow, generated from mixer in the mixing zone. At 0.63 of barrier/water level ratio, sludge in the middle part of sludge settling zone rocked from side to side weakly. And sludge in the lower part became piled up on the bottom over this ratio. After 10minutes of sludge settling, the lower part of sludge settling zone was over 5000mg/L of sludge concentration although intial sludge concentration was 2300mg/L. By using the submerged barrier and the flow types, it could transfer sludge from this to that.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.264-270
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• 2006

In this research, volume reduction of activated sludge using electrolysis was studied to find an optimum condition using lab scale experiments. Wasted sludge was treated by electrolysis with controlling current density, chloride concentration, electrode distance, and reaction time. Volume of return sludge was reduced by 9.79% in average while maximum was 16.7%. Sludge volume reduction efficiency was affected by current density and reaction time. It was reversely proportional to the electrode distance. Especially current density was effective on the system performance significantly. Electric conductivity, salinity and COD were increased by electrolysis implying sludge disintegrated and converted to COD in part. An empirical equation for total solid removal efficiency by electrolysis was proposed by multiple linear regression analysis as: $TS_{rem}$(%) = 5.534 ${\times}$ current density (A/l) + 0.178 ${\times}$ reaction time (m) + 2.758.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.27 no.4
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• pp.79-83
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• 2001

The sludge wastes fermentation process reactors were operated to produce the VFAs(volatile fatty acids) as supplemental carbon sources and to determine the optimum operating conditions. The experiment was carried out by varied mixture ration of 400:0 350:30 300:100 200:200 and operating temperature 2$0^{\circ}C$ 3$0^{\circ}C$ and 4$0^{\circ}C$ The results were as follows: Higher VFAs production rate observed at higher mixed ratio of primary sludge. When the mixed ratio of primary sludge and return sludge were 400:0 350:50 300:100 200:200 respectively. VFAs production are were 829.6mg/l 944.2 mg/l 597.9mg/ml an d441.6 mg/l , respectively. the yield of VFAs increased with temperature, but decreased with initial TSS concentration Because fermented sludge has relatively low nitrogen and phosphorus and relatively high VFAs it can be used as a substitute for external carbon in biological nutrient removal process.

• Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.530-538
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• 2009

The Oxic-Settling-Anaerobic (OSA) treatment process, a modified Conventional Activated Sludge (CAS) process, was developed for the purpose of sludge reduction. The insertion of a sludge holding tank into a sludge return line, an anaerobic reactor, forming an OSA process, may provide a cost-effective way of reducing excess sludge production during a process. The OSA process was evaluated for its sludge reduction ability by kinetic parameter and mass balance, with an observed excess sludge reduction of 63.5%, as $P_{X.VSS}$, compared with the conventional activated sludge process.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.636-643
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• 2011

Sludge solubilization using sonification has been increasingly used for sludge volume reduction along with enhancing digestion efficiency during anaerobic biogas production. In this study, either electric field or ultrasonification or in combination with were investigated using three types of sludge (return, excess and mixed at G sewage treatment facility) for the most efficient solubilization. As a the closed loop, 200 L of sludge was continuously passing through the solubilization system at an average flow rate of $0.7m^3/h$, which is equivalent to 3.5 times treated per hour for up to 84 times (24 h). Only implying electric field showed no variation for sCOD/tCOD before and after treatment on sludge solubilization regardless of types of sludge. However, employing the ultrasonic or combined system could both increasingly solubilize sludge with regard to the number of passing-through, which more enhanced by the combined. In addition, VSS/TSS was lowered to in the range of 2 and 6% while its particle size, diameter (0.9) and diameter (0.5) were more minimized than that of raw sludge. For return sludge, ultrasonification was more efficiently facilitated for solubilization, whereas electric field-ultrasonification was more preferably applied for excess and mixed sludge. It is concluded that depending on types of sludge, solubilization system must be selectively applied for the most efficient break-up of them.

• Journal of Korean Society of Water and Wastewater
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.195-202
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• 2010

The evaluation of organic matters and nutrients removal was investigated for the synthetic wastewater and the high strength of dairy wastewater. Two different systems were performed for this research. System A composing of a single RBC with tapered aeration was fed with the synthetic wastewater for 74 days with 173L/day of influent, 200% of internal return and 100% of sludge return for the period 1 and 2. The feed conditions were maintained 346L/day of influent, 50% of internal return and sludge return for the period 3. The dairy wastewater was introduced to evaluate treatment efficiency for system B composing of dual RBCs and tapered aeration tanks for 50 days of experimental run time, in which hydraulic rates were maintained at the constant ratios of 346L/day, 50% of internal return and 50% of sludge return. The spiral string media made of nylon fibre was attached by Bacillus sp. in RBC for both systems. The specific area of string media was $1.4m^2$/m and biomass was maintained at the concentrations of 23g/m. The synthetic wastewater was supplied by 1,800mg/L of glucose, 500mg/L of $NH_4Cl$, and 500mg/L of $KH_2PO_4$ to system A. The dairy wastewater was supplied to system B from dairy production plant. The average influent concentrations were 1,334mg/L of BOD, 2,014mg/L of CODcr, 160mg/L of T-N, and 12mg/L of T-P in system A. The average influent concentrations of parameters were 1,006 mg/L for BOD, 1,875mg/L for $COD_{cr}$, 51.6mg/L for T-N and 8.9mg/L for T-P in system B. Results indicated that removal efficiencies of BOD and $COD_{cr}$ were more than 90% however, the removal efficiency of T-N was 87%, and that of T-P was 82% for system A. Removal efficiencies were 98.5% of BOD, 91.3% of nitrogen and 89% of phosphorus for system B. The removal efficiencies of organic matters, T-N and T-P were higher in system B than in system A. The effluent quality issued by the stringent national legislations for the discharge of the high strength of dairy products wastewater can be improved using sequential RBCsand tapered aeration reactors rather than a single RBC and tapered aeration reactors with Bacillus sp.