Improved tracking of phosphorus in wastewater treatment works through anaerobic digestion of p-rich sludge

This research aims at improving the tracking of phosphorus (P) in wastewater treatment works (WWTWs) by developing a model which accurately explains the intracellular processes of phosphorus accumulating organisms (PAOs). Two major models: the “Comeau-Wentzel” model (Comeau et al., 1987) and the “Mino” model (Mino et al., 1988) were developed to explain PAO intracellular processes but the failure of these models to achieve data reconciliation when modelling the anaerobic digestion of PAOs show that they are still incomplete. Ikumi and Ekama (2019) generated stoichiometry to help model PAO intracellular processes and hypothesised that an energy transfer between the activated sludge (AS) system and the anaerobic digester (AD) might take place. This research generated a steady state (SS) anaerobic digestion model (an extension of Sӧtemann et al.'s (2005) model) to model the treatment of sludge from nitrifying-denitrifying enhanced biological phosphorus removal (NDEBPR) system and assess, through data reconciliation, which of Ikumi and Ekama's (2019) stoichiometry best models PAO behaviour. The AD model generated achieved a high degree of correlation with experimental data but was unable to conclusively identify a single biochemical pathway for PAO processes.

Grantor

Department of Civil Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

2021

Author dc:creator

• Quevauvilliers, Matthieu

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Ikumi, David S
• Ekama, George

• Engineering

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36047

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36047